Black Myth: Wukong is only just getting started, with a reported expansion on the way in lieu of a sequel.
According to a Bloomberg interview with Daniel Wu, the head of Game Science investor Hero Games, the next project for the team is a DLC expansion in the vein of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. The plan is to use a major expansion to monetize the game a second time and boost sales a few years down the line. Bloomberg wrote: “It won’t take another six years for the next chapter in what’s planned to be a series based on Chinese mythology — though that won’t be a sequel,” Wu said.
This somewhat unofficial announcement will be good news for many of the millions of players who’ve checked out Black Myth: Wukong since it released on August 20 on PlayStation 5 and PC. The game starting breaking sales records very quickly. Game Science announced three days after launch that it had already sold 10 million copies across platforms. Bloomberg cites Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, who estimates that it had earned $700 million as of August 30. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Ahmad added that the number is now closer to $800 million. This is huge, especially considering the development budget was around $70 million, Ahmad claimed.
“This makes it one of the fastest selling games of all time, only overshadowed by games like GTAV and MW2,” Ahmad wrote.
Even a few weeks on, it’s still pulling in some large numbers. According to SteamDB, it’s still reliably bringing in over a million concurrent players every day. At the time of this writing, it’s fourth on Steam’s most-played games.
There are a number of factors that are contributing to the game’s success. Word of mouth is certainly a part of it, coupled with its gorgeous visuals. Ahmad wrote in a previous blog post that it also has to do with it being a huge hit in China, which had been lacking in native blockbuster titles.
“The success of Black Myth: Wukong highlights a significant shift in the global video games landscape for both Chinese and non-China based developers,” Ahmad wrote. “It signals that Chinese studios are ready to compete directly with established Western and Japanese developers in the premium AAA space.”
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Game Science though. The studio, along with Hero Games, came under fire for sending out streaming guidelines that forbid early players from discussing “politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishization, and other content that instigates negative discourse,” including COVID-19. This goes along with allegations of sexism from within the studio.
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