"Black Myth: Wukong" -- an Inspiration for Foreign Businesses' Journey to the East

“Black Myth: Wukong” has been the most trending topic in China and the global gaming industry in recent days. The game is widely regarded as a groundbreaking milestone for the Chinese gaming industry. It is the first mainstream video game to feature an in-depth adaptation of “Journey to the West,” a 16th-century great novel rooted in traditional Chinese mythology. The classic is so well-known in East Asian culture that it has inspired characters like Goku in “Dragon Ball.” While many may attribute the game’s success to a surge of national pride or the novelty of being China’s first-ever AAA game, the real story runs much deeper.

The success of “Black Myth: Wukong” reflects an evolving Chinese market that increasingly demands high-quality cultural and entertainment products that appeal to more nuanced and sophisticated new-generation Chinese consumers. The game’s positive reception and reviews should also be considered a wake-up call for the broader international business community.

The performance of the game speaks for itself. Within 24 hours of its global launch, the game sold over 4.5 million copies across all platforms, grossing over 1.5 billion yuan (approximately 210.2 million U.S. dollars). In the first 48 hours since the game’s release, players worldwide continued to join and explore the game, with the number of concurrent players peaking at over 2.2 million on Steam, the world’s most prominent PC gaming platform. The game has received more than 200,000 reviews, 96 percent of which were positive.

Over 70 percent of the players played the game in Chinese, indicating that the primary consumers are Chinese. Accordingly, the game is best categorized as delivering a nuanced, culturally relevant product that taps into a largely underdeveloped sector of the Chinese market.

The success of “Black Myth: Wukong” is not an isolated incident; instead, it is only the latest indicator that Chinese consumers are looking for and willing to spend on entertainment of higher quality that speaks to their cultural identity and sophisticated tastes.

For instance, the return of the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix to Shanghai this past April sparked massive interest, with ticket sales soaring. Notably, more than 80 percent of the spectators were not local, but traveled from other parts of China. This strong reception was not only due to the presence of Zhou Guanyu, the first-ever Chinese F1 driver, but also due to the growing purchasing power and the willingness of Chinese consumers to spend on high-quality, culturally resonant experiences. This is a marked difference from the situation in the early 2000s, when the introduction of Formula 1 failed to stimulate massive consumption.

Contrary to the narrative prevalent in some Western circles that China’s consumption is in decline and the Chinese appetite has “downgraded” given their decreasing consumption of luxury products, high-quality cultural, sports and entertainment offerings that speak to China’s nuanced social and cultural background are gaining immense popularity.

The reality is that after more than 40 years of reform and opening up, Chinese consumers are more discerning and sophisticated and no longer satisfied with the quality and abundance of the highly homogeneous choices of goods and services offered by foreign businesses, particularly American ones.

For example, Japanese businesses, which share a closer cultural background, have quickly adapted to Chinese consumers’ recent change of taste and are taking leading positions to capture this promising market. The 2023 release of “Suzume” in the Chinese mainland led to a box office record of 752 million yuan (about 109 million dollars), soon to be matched by the phenomenal success of other imported Japanese anime films, including “The First Slam Dunk.” A tailored marketing approach drawing from an entire Chinese generation’s shared memory of Japanese-imported anime is crucial for the success of the movies, in addition to the highly nuanced cultural content that Chinese consumers appreciate.

The challenge for American businesses is that they can no longer rely on dumping average-quality, Hollywood-style content and expect it to succeed by default. This might work a decade ago with a relatively naive, albeit wealthy, Chinese consumer base. Today, however, the new generation of Chinese consumers is more informed and culturally aware and is looking for products that are fine-tuned to their own values and identities. The problem lies with the suppliers, not the consumers.

The Chinese government is also well aware and supportive of this evolution. The future of China’s economy will not be driven by risky financial ventures or real-estate speculation, but by innovation and consumption, particularly in the cultural and entertainment sectors.

The success of “Black Myth: Wukong” is just the beginning. The Chinese cultural industry is poised for a significant boom empowered by further government guidance. The good news is that the market is enormous, with the gaming, movie, tourism and sports sectors all poised for substantial growth. The question is whether foreign businesses, especially those from the United States struggling to sustain success in China, are equipped to keep up with the new change and further embrace better localization strategies.

To win over this new generation of Chinese consumers, U.S. and foreign companies must invest in understanding Chinese culture, society and history. Only by doing so can they expect to appeal to an audience that is now as sophisticated as it is affluent.

This article was originally published on Xinhua website on August 23, 2024.