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The first domestic 3A gameBlack Myth: Wukong》 will be launched on August 20. Since a week ago, this highly anticipated game has frequently appeared on hot searches, including "Black Myth: Wukong leaked", "Guess the boss", "IGN China full score" and other topics have attracted the attention of players.

In terms of commercial performance, the game has quickly topped the Steam global weekly best-seller list since pre-orders were launched on June 8. According to the weekly sales chart of the Steam platform released by Valve, from August 6 to 13, Black Myth: Wukong took the first place in the world in pre-orders.

Black Myth: Wukong is priced in several categories. The standard version is priced at 268 yuan on PC platforms such as Steam and WeGame (296 Hong Kong dollars on PSN Hong Kong), and the deluxe version is priced at 328 yuan. In addition to the digital version, the physical deluxe version is priced at 820 yuan, including game redemption codes, collection iron boxes, brass tights and other game peripherals. The physical collector's edition is priced at 1998 yuan, which includes the "Destiny Man" figure and other peripheral products on the basis of the physical deluxe version. According to data from analytical institutions, the sales of Black Myth: Wukong exceeded 100 million yuan in three days of pre-order.

Black Myth: Wukong also made A-shares popular. As early as June, when Black Myth: Wukong was pre-sold, the publisher Zhejiang Media (601921) had already hit the daily limit. On August 19, Huayi Brothers (300027) hit the 20% daily limit, and Zhejiang Media and Fuchun shares rose by more than 5% at one point. Black Myth: Wukong became popular, but it was not the gaming stocks that became popular.

It's not the gaming stocks that are hot

Public information shows that the producer of "Black Myth: Wukong" is Game Science, whose full name is Shenzhen Youke Interactive Technology Co., Ltd. The company was established in 2014 and was founded by Feng Ji, Yang Qi and other core members of Tencent's "God of War" online game project.

Dissecting the investors behind it, according to information from Tianyancha, Game Science's current external shareholders include Tencent (directly holding shares in Guangxi Tencent Venture Capital Co., Ltd.) and Hero Games (directly holding shares in Tianjin Hero Financial Holdings Technology Co., Ltd.), with Tencent holding 5% and Hero Games holding 19%, both of which are non-listed companies. The reporter found that the last shareholder change information of Game Science on Tianyancha was in 2021.

Hero Games (formerly known as "Hero Entertainment") is the earliest institutional shareholder of Game Science and acquired a stake in Game Science in 2017. In 2020, Game Science released a trailer for "Black Myth: Wukong", which became an instant hit and became the hottest topic in the gaming circle at the time. In 2021, Tencent acquired a stake in Game Science.

Feng Ji, founder and CEO of Game Science, once said on Zhihu that after the trailer for Black Myth: Wukong was released, the Tencent team visited the company to seek investment. He said in the article that "there is no shortage of money", but what he revealed may be that Tencent can provide technical support on the development tool Unreal Engine, and at the same time Game Science can remain independent after Tencent's investment, whether in terms of people, technology or funds.

After the equity change is completed in 2021, Tencent holds 5% of the shares, Feng Ji holds 38.75% of the shares, and other members of the team hold the remaining 37.1% of the shares. Hero Games holds about 19% of the shares, making it the largest external shareholder of Game Science. However, there are reports that Hero Games decided to sell its shares in Game Science in 2022, but this news has not been officially confirmed.

The outside world believes that Huayi Brothers' daily limit today may be because the company holds shares in Hero Games. The company once responded on the investor interaction platform that its current shares in Hero Games account for approximately 5.17% of the total share capital of Hero Games.

Another company, Zhejiang Publishing Group Digital Media, has attracted investors' attention because its subsidiary Zhejiang Publishing Group Digital Media Co., Ltd. is the publisher of Black Myth: Wukong. Zhejiang Publishing Group Digital Media Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the company, stated on the investor interaction platform on August 16 that it is the publisher of the game Black Myth: Wukong and is responsible for game content review, publication application and publication number application.

It is worth mentioning that after the daily limit in June due to "Black Myth: Wukong", Zhejiang Edition Media began a period of decline in July. In August, the company's stock price began to rise again. On August 19, Zhejiang Edition Media rose by 1.05%, and the fluctuation was not large.

In addition to the beneficiaries of the stock market, another consumer brand that became popular due to "Black Myth: Wukong" is Luckin Coffee.

On August 19, Luckin Coffee and "Black Myth: Wukong" launched a joint event, which included Black Myth Tengyun American coffee and peripheral packages. Consumers who purchased the designated packages can get a "Black Myth: Wukong" 3D limited poster.

Before the event started, consumers were already queuing outside Luckin's offline stores. After the event went online, the surrounding packages were quickly sold out. From noon to afternoon, the reporter found that the Luckin Coffee applet showed that the surrounding store co-branded packages had been offline. The entry #瑞幸黑神话武空券可负不了# once became a hot search.

On the same day, Luckin Coffee Chief Growth Officer (CGO) Yang Fei revealed on social media that the co-branded peripherals were sold out in seconds, "almost causing the system to crash."

On second-hand trading platforms, the prices of these peripherals have been rising. Many sellers sell packages of "cup holders, posters, etc." for nearly 40 yuan, while the drink package itself is only 25 yuan.

What does 3A game mean?

Regarding this game, reviewers from authoritative rating agency IGN China said that "Black Myth: Wukong" will become a strong contender for this year's Game of the Year.

Many industry analysts said that the popularity of Black Myth: Wukong shows that my country's game production capabilities have become competitive in the global market. Great Wall Securities believes that, based on the current popularity and quality of games, Black Myth: Wukong, as a soul-like game, is expected to catch up with the sales ofElden Ring》"Dark Souls" and other top soul-type games.

Game industry analyst Zhang Shule told the First Financial reporter that the biggest reason for the popularity of "Black Myth: Wukong" is that the Chinese game industry has always had a gap in 3A games. The world's largest game market and the richest game companies do not have products that are truly called 3A game masterpieces in the world. This is a pain in the hearts of Chinese game developers and players, and "Black Myth: Wukong" is highly anticipated based on this.

3A games usually refer to high-cost, high-quality, and high-volume stand-alone games that require a lot of resources to develop. The development cost is usually no less than 50 million US dollars. Well-known 3A games include "Grand Theft Auto" and "Assassin's Creed".

Zhang Shule believes that domestic games are moving towards high-quality games and games going overseas. To truly participate in global competition in overseas markets, it is no longer realistic to simply rely on the previous mobile game strategy of filling in the gaps in genres to gain dividends. Using 3A games to impact the global market is the general trend of domestic games.

"But we have to admit that even if Black Myth: Wukong becomes China's first 3A masterpiece, for the current domestic game industry, it will only be more determined to move towards the direction of high-quality games, but it will be difficult to change the long-standing problem of domestic games being 70% marketing and 30% research and development in the short term," said Zhang Shule.

Game developer Zhang Buzhi believes that after the release of Black Myth: Wukong, as long as there are no major quality issues and the reputation does not fail, it will have a very positive impact on the domestic game industry. On the one hand, PC games will receive more attention, and more stand-alone projects may be launched. In addition, hot money may once again focus on the game industry.

"The gaming industry now needs new tracks and new stories. The previous two-dimensional games, SLGs (strategy games) and MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) have been too competitive and have not had a high success rate." Zhang Bu said that more investors will now consider new tracks and new stories. If "Black Myth: Wukong" can successfully set an example, there should be more hot money for investment in this track in the future.

(This article comes from China Business Network)