Game on, this time with Chinese legends

On the video games circuit, an arena dominated by Western legends, one can say the Chinese legends have arrived. On Tuesday, the day of its official release, 1.6 million global players were playing together online the newly developed game Black Myth: Wukong on the Steam platform. It had more takers than Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Elden Ring, all popular worldwide.

Black Myth: Wukong has showcased to the world not only the creativity of Chinese developers, but also the lure of Chinese culture.

Before it, there is Dota 2 and its predecessor Dota, which, too, are based on a fictional magical world and listed the Monkey King among its heroes years ago, but most of its other heroes, such as Goblin Alchemist, Paladin Omniknight and Naga Siren can be traced to ancient European tales. Elden Ring's characters are mostly Western in style.

Even old favorites such as Red Alert 2 or WarCraft III or SuperMario have a Western cultural background. All of which made some joke that all legendary heroes have one thing in common, they speak fluent English.

The monopoly ended some years ago with the advent of Honor of Kings, in which most heroes are drawn from Chinese history or legend. Now Black Myth: Wukong has gone a step further by telling the story of a traditional Chinese legend in the form of a video game, the popularity of which will open the eyes of global audiences to the rich storehouse of Chinese legends.

The success of the game owes a lot to the selection of Wukong – the monkey king hero from classic Chinese novel Journey to the West – as the game's hero. The appeal of traditional culture and the application of modern video techniques is working wonders.

It will not be so easy to create such a miraculous cultural work again, partly due to the amount of time needed, as also the requirement of funds and human resources. But the investment has received good returns as by Tuesday evening over 3 million copies had already been sold on video game digital distribution service Steam. Another 1.5 million copies were sold on WeGame, Epic! and PlayStation services, with the total sales having exceeded 1.5 billion yuan ($210.3 million).

At a time when developers are in a haste to make quick bucks, it's precious to note that some have tapped Chinese masterpieces. As there is no dearth of Chinese legends to tap from, they can also expect good returns in the long run.

— ZHANG ZHOUXIANG, CHINA DAILY