Have you ever wondered why China took so long to expand in the console and AAA games market? Video game consoles were banned from 2000 to 2014 because the government considered their effects to be negative for young people as they risked creating addiction or affecting academic and social development. This is the reason why Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo didn’t arrive in that territory until 10 years ago, which has slowed down the emergence of high-budget AAA games like Black Myth Wukong becoming popular.
During those years in China, what stood out were PC games and mobile proposals, as free titles like League of Legends or CrossFire dominated part of the market. This, along with mobile devices, resulted in a more economical way of playing video games than buying a console and purchasing several launch games. For this reason, the cultural barrier of many players has been the great rise of the free-to-play model, unlike premium AAA paid games.
It is also important to consider the strict regulations and censorship by the Chinese government when publishing a high-budget game in China. Video games that show too much violence, include political or religious themes are prohibited as they are considered a bad influence on the population. However, China always promoted its own industry, like Tencent or NetEase, over foreign companies that wanted to capture a larger audience.
Another aspect to consider is the taxes and import fees, which deterred many external publishers. This accumulation of factors has influenced many companies to not enter the Chinese market, but Black Myth Wukong has initiated a significant change in this territory, as it has encouraged numerous studios to develop video games for consoles and launch them in the West, America, and other Asian countries. Evidence of this is that Black Myth Wukong has sold 20 million copies, and many sales are from Chinese users.
Phantom Blade Zero aims to be another of the great successes coming from China, which could be released in 2025 or 2026.
In this way, it is worth mentioning that other Chinese studios have started their path to stand out in the development of AAA games for consoles in China, as it captures the attention of the rest of the world and interests many players in the country. Titles like Phantom Blade Zero or Wuchang: Fallen Leathers also aspire to sell well worldwide, including in China, where they can be most successful. In this sense, S-Game, the creators of Phantom Blade Zero, have talked about expanding into console games in an interview with 4Gamer.
The CEO of the Chinese studio, Liang Qiwei, has explained why a time of Chinese market expansion is approaching, one that will benefit the whole world. “Until now, the available technology and the market itself had not advanced enough. We simply could not make console games. It’s not that one day studios decided to make console games; that was actually our desire from the beginning,” explains the creator of Phantom Blade Zero about the limitations of China as an industry.
“Even before the release of Wukong, 30-40% of sales of Western and Japanese games came from China,” highlighting the importance of launching games in Asian markets. However, the lack of experience of many Chinese developers was a limitation that no longer exists and they have been able to adapt. “We have a lot of experience in mobile games and in subcontracting like motion capture or artistic design, many of them done for AAA games from various countries,” Qiwei reveals (via Hobby Consolas).
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is another soulslike RPG that we must keep an eye on for 2025.
We have previously discussed the importance of Black Myth Wukong for the emergence of China, even the developers of Phantom Blade Zero and Stellar Blade have recognized it. Months ago, one of the directors said that Wukong could mark a turning point for studios. “I think we are now merging. It’s like a bridge between different cultures and systems. I think it’s a good trend, creating new IPs. I think everyone will be very successful. Everyone is watching Black Myth Wukong. If it succeeds in the national and international market, people will have a lot of confidence in other games,” he indicated.
This phenomenon is also applicable to South Korea, with successes like Lies of P or Stellar Blade. Both have been so important for the country that even the government will invest millions of dollars to promote the development of console games, which will attract the attention of Sony and Microsoft for important collaborations. What is clear is that this type of news demonstrates that the ones benefiting are the players worldwide, receiving titles born from talented teams from countries that did not usually make AAA console games.
In 3DJuegos | What the success of Black Myth Wukong really means for all of us
In 3DJuegos | The hyper-realistic graphics of Black Myth: Wukong pose a problem with a difficult solution
In 3DJuegos | A mass phenomenon sweeping through China and now seeking to capture the video game fan in the West. What the Wuxia genre is and its most promising games
