At 10 a.m. on August 20, the first domestic AAA game "Black Myth: Wukong" was officially unlocked and launched online. This game, which was launched in February 2018, has finally been delivered to players around the world after six and a half years of development. The official Weibo of the game posted: "Re-journey to the West · Today. "Black Myth: Wukong" is now unlocked on the PS5 / STEAM / EPIC GAMES STORE / WEGAME platform, let your horse go westward and face your destiny!"
"3A" level games refer to stand-alone games with high quality levels. Their status is at the top of the world game market, just like the top of a pyramid. "Black Myth: Wukong" is a game created by Shenzhen Youke Interactive Technology Co., Ltd. It deeply explores the essence of Journey to the West culture and presents it to players in the form of stand-alone action role-playing. In the game, players will become "man of destiny", shouldering the important task of exploring the truth of ancient legends, and embarking on a journey to the West that is both challenging and amazing.
After the game was officially unlocked and launched that day, netizens were eager to get started, but they encountered a "long road to decompression": "The first difficulty of the Eighty-one Difficulties, starting to decompress" "Longer than the download time" "Decompression interrupted my dream of the Great Saint"...
Breaking domestic game pre-sale record
A senior player who pre-ordered "Black Myth: Wukong" solemnly said: "I have been paying attention to this game ("Black Myth: Wukong") a few years ago and have always been looking forward to its official release. Now this wish has finally come true." When asked why the game is so popular, the player gave the following explanation: "First of all, the 3A-level games I have come into contact with have beautiful graphics and excellent quality. The game has always been dominated by overseas games, and few domestic games can match it; secondly, this game is based on the well-known mythological story "Journey to the West", and I have high expectations for its adaptation. I hope that it can inject new vitality into this classic story with a novel perspective and narrative method. In addition, judging from the previously released trial video, the production level of this game has undoubtedly reached a very high level. "
In fact, before the game was officially released, the official account of "Black Myth: Wukong" had accumulated nearly 3.5 million followers on Station B.
On the evening of August 16, just four days before the launch of "Black Myth: Wukong", the global game media's rating authority was lifted. One of the official review videos attracted more than 6.2 million viewers on Station B. It is particularly worth mentioning that IGN China gave the game a high level of recognition and gave it a perfect score of 10. At the same time, the well-known game manufacturer MiHoYo also expressed high praise for the game, calling it "a long-awaited success" in the domestic game industry.
At 10 a.m. on August 18, the domestic game "Black Myth: Wukong" officially started pre-loading.
Preloading is a common practice in the game industry. It means that in the days before the game is officially released, players can download most of the game data to their computers in advance, so that players can start playing the game as soon as possible after the game is released, eliminating the long download process.
The official download statistics released by Steam show that since the pre-loading of "Black Myth: Wukong" was opened, the download bandwidth usage of Steam has increased sharply in less than four hours, and reached a peak of 70Tbps at one point. This data refreshed the historical record of download bandwidth usage on the Steam platform.
Compared with the widespread public attention, the sales performance of "Black Myth: Wukong" is even more impressive. According to the latest weekly sales list of the Steam platform released by Valve (August 6-13, 2024), the pre-order results of "Black Myth: Wukong" have ranked first in the world. Although Game Science has not officially announced specific sales data, according to estimates from multiple third-party authoritative organizations, since the pre-sale started on June 8, the cumulative sales of "Black Myth: Wukong" across all platforms have exceeded 1.2 million units, and the total global pre-sales have exceeded 400 million yuan. This achievement has successfully broken the historical record of domestic game pre-sales.
Many companies announced holidays
The clearance process of "Black Myth: Wukong" takes a long time, so on the first day of its launch, many companies took special measures to support their employees' gaming experience.
Sichuan Muziyang Technology Co., Ltd. officially issued a notice on August 19, announcing that it will provide all employees with a day off on August 20, the day after the launch of "Black Myth: Wukong". The purpose of this move is to allow employees to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the game and enjoy the visual shock and gaming fun brought by "Black Myth: Wukong", and to encourage employees to share the wonderful moments of this domestic masterpiece with colleagues and friends. The company made it clear that this holiday initiative is a positive support and affirmation of the domestic game industry.
At the same time, game publisher Gamera Game also followed suit and announced a day off for all employees on August 20. In order to alleviate employees' possible discomfort due to work suspension, the company also decided to give each employee a digital deluxe version of "Black Myth: Wukong" as a token of encouragement and gratitude.
In addition, the well-known industry media "Game Tea House" also issued a relevant announcement, stating that in order to support employees to fully experience the charm of "Black Myth: Wukong", it has decided to provide employees with a half-day holiday on August 20. At the same time, in order to reduce the financial burden on employees, the company will also provide employees with the opportunity to reimburse the cost of the game to ensure that every employee can enjoy the game without any worries.
You need to sell 3 million copies to make your money back
Regarding the current high-profile domestic stand-alone game "top-tier", what is the design cost of "Black Myth: Wukong"? Against this background, Feng Ji, the founder of Game Science Company (the producer of "Black Myth: Wukong"), clearly mentioned in a public interview: "The development cost of each player's hourly gaming experience of "Black Myth: Wukong" is estimated to be between 15 million yuan and Between 20 million yuan. Our team expects that the entire game will last more than 15 hours, and the actual development cycle is more than 1.5 times that expected time. Based on this estimate, the development cost of this game will be at least 400 million yuan.”
Currently, in the Steam China region, the pricing strategy of "Black Myth: Wukong" is: the standard version is priced at 268 yuan, while the digital deluxe version is priced at 328 yuan. Based on this price, Game Science needs to sell at least 3 million copies of the game to cover its cost investment. However, many players and industry experts have a positive attitude towards this. They believe: "The IP of "Black Myth: Wukong" combines the core elements of many popular games, including the super IP Sun Wukong, profound cultural heritage and excellent game production quality. Before this, the domestic 3A game market has not yet been fully charged. In the field of separate development, because the production of such games requires a lot of manpower, high costs and long-term investment, many companies are more inclined to pursue short-term profits. However, the emergence of "Black Myth: Wukong" has undoubtedly injected new vitality into this field, indicating that more high-quality domestic 3A games will emerge in the future."
The stock price is rising and all boats are rising, and joint-branded peripherals are short-selling
The widespread influence of "Black Myth: Wukong" has significantly pushed up the prices of related concept stocks in the capital market. Among them, Huayi Brothers, which is closely related to this game, achieved a strong daily limit of 20% on the 19th. Since August 14th, its stock price has climbed to a cumulative high of 43%.
Dating back to 2017, Huayi Brothers officially entered the field of online games and mobile games by investing in Hero Interactive Entertainment Technology Co., Ltd. As for Hero Entertainment, as the investor of Game Science, the producer of the popular domestic game "Black Myth: Wukong", its importance is self-evident.
"The secondary market may have already had insight into this level of investment relationship, which has contributed to Huayi Brothers' recent strong stock price performance." A senior investor in the gaming industry in Hangzhou pointed out. Hero Interactive Entertainment was founded by Ying Shuling in June 2015. Then in 2016, Feng Ji, the founder of Game Science, and his team jointly established Shenzhen Youke Interactive Technology Co., Ltd., with Hero Interactive Entertainment as the earliest institutional shareholder, holding 19% of its shares. By 2021, Tencent will also join the investment ranks and become one of the shareholders of Shenzhen Youke, with a shareholding ratio of 5%. "If "Black Myth: Wukong" is a huge success, Hero Interactive Entertainment is expected to receive up to 200 million yuan in game revenue from Game Science."
It is worth noting that the founding team members of Game Science have deep connections with Tencent. According to Feng Ji, the founder of Game Science, after the release of "Black Myth", Tencent quickly organized a group to visit the company in the name of "assistance" to express investment intentions. Faced with Tencent's investment proposal, Feng Ji raised his concerns. He asked whether Tencent would intervene in product decisions and the company's daily operations after the investment. Tencent made it clear that it would not intervene and promised that "we can treat us as if we don't exist at all." In addition, Feng Ji also asked about the issue of game distribution and operation rights. Tencent also gave a negative answer and stated that it would not use its status as an investor to interfere in related matters.
"Black Myth" also launched joint activities. Luckin Coffee launched the "Black Myth: Wukong" co-branded coffee product on August 19. This coffee called "Tengyun American" comes with a portable paper bag and cup cover from "Black Myth: Wukong", attracting a large number of fans to buy it.
In addition, Luckin also opened a "Black Myth: Wukong" theme store and launched a 3D limited poster of "Black Myth: Wukong", requiring consumers to purchase the store's designated package before giving it away. Sales of this poster far exceeded expectations. On the afternoon of August 19, Luckin Coffee announced that it has formulated a replenishment plan, but the next batch of goods will take 15 days to produce.
Luckin CGO (Chief Growth Officer) Yang Fei also posted in his circle of friends that the joint event between Luckin and the high-profile domestic game "Black Myth: Wukong" has been amazing. "(Black Myth Wukong) was sold out nationwide in seconds, and the system almost collapsed. The purchasing power of men has overturned the team's perception this morning."
"This is more than just a game"
"I have heard many people discussing the game "Black Myth: Wukong" during my business trip in the past two days. There has never been a game that has so many players, even people beyond the player category, with high expectations." Internet analyst Ding Daoshi told a reporter from Securities Times e Company.
"The significance of "Black Myth" is not only 3A, but the greater significance is that it is a buyout game." Sun Lei, a partner at Beijing Yuanhe Law Firm, told a reporter from Securities Times·e Company. "Previously, domestic game companies were reluctant to make such high-investment buyout games. The main reason was that the risk of failure was too high, no one invested, and the profit prospects were unclear. In addition, there were also problems such as how to deal with subsequent cracking and piracy." Sun Lei believes that if "Black Myth" can verify the above problems and obtain decent profits, other domestic game companies may follow suit in the future.
"This is not just a game, but the success of a system. Its success may encourage other domestic companies to dare to participate, invest freely, use Chinese culture and Chinese IP to make large-scale productions, and distribute it to the world at the same time." Ding Daoshi said.
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