Black Myth: Wukong

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About

Black Myth: Wukong is an action role-playing video game developed by Game Science, a Chinese indie company formed by former employees of Tencent. The game is inspired by the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West and centers on Sun Wukong, the titular Monkey King, and combines plot elements from the book with an original story. The game was released in August 2024, becoming a critical and commercial success and setting a record for concurrent players.

History

On August 19th, 2020, Hangzhou-based indie video game studio Game Science announced Black Myth: Wukong, presented as China's first AAA title.^[1] The game is a retelling of the Chinese mythology epic Journey to the West, with players controlling titular protagonist Sun Wukong in a soulslike gameplay setting that features combat, exploration and stealth.

On August 20th, 2020, 13 minutes of pre-alpha gameplay footage was released by Game Science on Bilibili^[2], gaining over 22 million views, 2.2 million likes and one million shares in five days. Later on the same day, the YouTube^[3] channel for Black Myth: Wukong was launched, uploading the gameplay trailer (shown below).

On Chinese social media Weibo, the CEO of Game Science revealed that they uploaded the trailer to demonstrate their project globally in order to recruit more talent. On August 20th, 2020, X^[4] / Twitter user ZhugeEX posted a thread about the upcoming game and the studio behind it.

On August 7th, 2024, the final trailer for the game was released on YouTube,^[5] where it accumulated over 1.2 million views in two weeks (shown below).

The game was released globally for PlayStation 5 and Windows on August 20th, 2024.^[6] The game is reportedly the first installment in the Black Myth series.

Gameplay and Features

Black Myth: Wukong is an action role-playing game that borrows certain elements from the soulslike genre. The player assumes control of the Destined One, a monkey character based on Sun Wukong from the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West.

The character is wielding a staff which is able to extend and shrink in size. The gameplay comprises elements of fighting, stealth and exploration, with combat involving landing attacks while dodging the enemies. The game is mostly linear, with the development of the character being the primary means of progression (gameplay video shown below).

Reception

The game was met with positive reviews from critics and audiences. On OpenCritic,^[13] the game had an average critic review of 80 based on 39 critic reviews as of August 20th, 2024. On Metacritic,^[14] the game had an average rating of 81 based on 60 critic reviews. On Steam,^[15] the game had an Overwhelmingly Positive rating with 96 percent of positive votes based on over 110,000 reviews.

On August 18th, 2024, the official X / Twitter account for the game posted a video showcasing positive reviews from multiple gaming websites, with the post (shown below) gaining over 1,400 reposts and 10,000 likes in two days.

One day remains until reembarking on the Journey to the West! Destined Ones, worry not! Set off boldly to the west and subdue any yaoguais that dare cross your path! Purchasing #blackmythwukong now still makes you eligible for pre-order rewards. pic.twitter.com/qNsWOQ24km

— Black Myth: Wukong (@BlackMythGame) August 19, 2024

Diversity Controversy

Black Myth: Wukong Diversity Controversy refers to the several early reviews that gave the game average review scores, with a contributing factor it not being "diverse" or "inclusive," as it was reported to have turned down a consultation by Sweet Baby Inc. The controversy, primarily stemming from two prominent IGN and Screen Rant reviews of the game, came to a head when the game was fully released on August 20th, 2024, as many fans and social media users pushed back against the criticisms or mocked the video game journalists.

Online Presence

Pre-Release

On August 20th, 2020, Game Science launched an official X^[7] / Twitter account and Instagram^[8] and Facebook^[9] pages for the game. On the same day, subreddit^[10] /r/BlackMythWukong was created on Reddit.

On August 21st, IGN^[11] published an article about the developer responding to the influx of interest around the game's debut, which was later shared to Reddit^[12] that same day. The post on /r/Games received over 2,800 upvotes and 529 comments in roughly three days.

On August 22nd, YouTuber^[10] Maximilian Dood uploaded a reaction video (shown below), gaining over 226,000 views, 13,000 likes and 2,000 comments in less than 24 hours.

Post-Release

Within one day of the release, the game set a record for concurrent players on Steam,^[20] peaking at over 2.2 million players and beating the previous player record of 1.3 million players held by DoTA 2. The game's immediate success became a subject of viral posts on social media (example shown below).

Due to the game revolving around the player being Sun Wukong, known as the "Monkey King," fans of the game began posting online about being monkeys, involving various GIFs and videos of monkeys, in a similar vein to the Return to Monke
and Apes Together Stronger memes. This can be seen in the August 20th, 2024, X post by user @RenbaRackham^[21], showing a picture of several monkeys sprinting in one direction across a parking lot while claiming it to be the spiking Steam chart (shown below).

Do's and Don't List

On August 17th, 2024, a guideline email for content creators containing Do's and Don'ts for the game was leaked online.^[16] The list included several points which advised content creators against mentioning "feminist propaganda", "trigger words such as quarantine or COVID-19", and discussing topic related to China's game industry and policies. On that day, X^[17] user @MauroNL3 posted a screenshot of the list, with the post gaining over 1.1 million views, 810 reposts and 2,500 likes on X in three days (shown below).

The veracity of the list was later confirmed by several news websites, including Forbes.^[18]

The spread of the leaked document was followed by a pushback as some streamers and content creators deliberately incorporated undesired elements from the list into their streams and videos. For example, on August 19th, 2024, X^[19] user @MightyKeef posted a screenshot of streamer MOONMOON broadcasting the game with the title "COVID-19 ISOLATION TAIWAN (IS A REAL COUNTRY) FEMINISM PROPAGANDA". The post (shown below, left) received over 3,000 reposts and 35,000 likes in one day.