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since the release of black myth: wukong, there is no need to elaborate on the wave of popularity that has swept the entire network. although the official did not announce the total sales after the sales of all platforms exceeded 10 million on the third day of release, judging from the subsequent popularity and some revelations, the sales of black myth: wukong are likely to have exceeded 20 million. perhaps the official wants to directly announce the first month's data later.

with 600,000 reviews on steam, black myth: wukong is still rated “highly praised”. beyond the game, the level of national attention and popularity it has received are unprecedented in history, and the cultural and brand value it has created is immeasurable.

so let’s not talk about the present, but the future - in black myth:after "wukong" established an industry milestone, has the market really ushered in spring for projects in the pipeline such as "shadow blade zero", "sixteen sounds of yanyun", "ming late: the feather of yuanxu" and "lost soul"? 

the success of black myth: wukong is obviously the result of multiple factors - the quality of the game itself, the charm of the journey to the west theme, the unique aesthetics and story adaptation ideas, and the changes in the external environment. however, there are more than one domestic stand-alone games, and the journey to the west theme is not the first game science to create. the most important thing is obviously the quality of black myth: wukong as a game itself.

currently, 28% of players on steam have achieved the "return to the true self" achievement, and more than 24% have achieved the "match with a match" achievement. this means that nearly 30% of players have defeated the remaining body of the monkey king and completed the game, and a quarter of players have defeated the hidden boss yang jian.in an action game of the same type with a certain degree of difficulty, the high clearance rate achieved so quickly also shows that players are not only paying with real money, but also have a high enthusiasm for the game itself.

apart from the map design, insufficient guidance, air walls, and the flower and fruit mountain map, which were caused by lack of experience and time, black myth: wukong has definitely reached the top level of the world's 3a games. the visual effects brought by the effective use of a large number of real scan scenes and unreal 5 are the benchmark for current 3a games. the fighting design and performance of key bosses such as huang mei, the remains of the great sage, yang jian, and fa tian xiang di are no less than classics such as sekiro, elden ring, and god of war series, which are famous for their excellent boss battles.

judging from the level of the game's dubbing, music, and even domestic animation, black myth:"wukong" also spent a lot of effort, and further made topics such as the animation of each chapter and the shaanxi sanxian lute spread hotly on social networks, achieving a truly large-scale cultural communication effect.

for those who come after, the extremely high starting point of black myth: wukong must have a two-sided impact:

on the one hand, the sales volume of black myth: wukong has expanded the domestic stand-alone market to a certain extent, which will attract capital attention, increase investment, and greatly increase the early popularity of other 3a game projects.

just taking baidu index as a reference, before the release of black myth: wukong on august 20, the baidu search index of shadow blade zero was around 400-500. on august 20, the search index of shadow blade zero directly rose to 1800, and then reached a peak of around 2500 within a month.five times more than before the launch; the baidu index of a number of domestic games such as "sixteen sounds of yanyun", "lost soul", and "showa american story" has increased by three or four times since august 20.

on the other hand, black myth:the extremely high quality of "wukong" has also raised players' expectations, and the public's requirements for subsequent domestic works will probably be more stringent.not only that, for the general development direction of many domestic stand-alone game projects, black myth:the impact of "wukong" will be more complicated, as we can see from the later "black myth:let’s talk about some key projects released in the "wukong" era.

after black myth: wukong, there are many domestic stand-alone games that have received a lot of attention:

shadow blade: zero：the dark martial arts style arpg "shadow blade: zero" is currently the most promising player to inherit the positive traffic brought by "black myth: wukong". the producer lingyoufang has previously created the "rain blood" series of stand-alone games, and later launched the "shadow blade" series of mobile games. it is very mature in the gameplay and level design of chinese style martial arts stand-alone games.

like black myth: wukong, shadow blade:shadow blade: zero was also developed with the unreal engine 5, and its pv visual performance was also very amazing, even to the point that some players thought it was impossible to do it. however, with the disclosure of the actual machine video and the trial play at the game exhibition, highlights such as the blood droplet boss battle became popular.the high degree of completion presented in "zero" gradually makes people feel at ease.

according to the media "china business news", liang qiwei, the founder of lingyoufang, revealed that the final total development cost of "shadow blade zero" will reach 300 million to 400 million yuan, equivalent to more than 50 million us dollars. but it is clear that the current popularity of domestic stand-alone games has exceeded his expectations: "so far, the exposure of "shadow blade zero" is more than 10 times that of all our previous mobile games combined, and it has reached the level of many current 3a games overseas." liang qiwei told reporters, "if we release a mobile game, this kind of exposure is unimaginable. all the marketing expenses we currently spend on "shadow blade zero" are not enough to buy 10,000 effective users if used to buy traffic for mobile games."

sixteen sounds of yanyun: from "the second college student in the village" to "pseudo 3a but actually a mobile game", "sixteen sounds of yanyun" invested by netease has the biggest gap in reputation before and after.

"yanyun sixteen sounds" is a martial arts game developed by everstone studios, and the genre is open world role-playing. previously, the official of "yanyun sixteen sounds" had made a bold statement of "resetting all the established plans and starting from 3a", but finally launched the fourth public beta called "yize" and began to test its performance on mobile phones.

taking the mobile side into consideration, it is obviously difficult for "sixteen sounds of yanyun" to reproduce the stunning visual effects in the first pv. moreover, the familiar krypton gold gameplay has gradually appeared, which has also made more players express their dissatisfaction with the mismatch between the advertised product and the actual product.

the reputation of "yanyun sixteen sounds" has fallen to such a passive level, largely due to "forcing 3a". "yanyun sixteen sounds" can be regarded as outstanding in its own field of online games, but in "black myth:after "wukong" greatly popularized the standards of domestic 3a games, the operation of "yanyun sixteen sounds" caused great controversy. netizens jokingly called its 3a android and apple, and some netizens also jokingly called it "shanghai fortress among domestic games."

the late ming dynasty: the feather of yuanxu：it is not difficult to find that a large number of domestic stand-alone games have chosen the martial arts action category, and superimposed with historical, regional culture, and fantasy elements, and are also obviously influenced by the popular soul-like action games in recent years. for example, ming late: the feather of yuanxu, which has a similar style to bloodborne, is expected to be a new work in the soul-like track with a chinese style cthulhu or chinese horror style. at present, the art design of this game is very eye-catching.

the game was first released with a real-machine demo in 2021, but very little public information has been released since then. after the release of "black myth: wukong", the r&d team finally released a r&d q&a video again, once again introducing the background and gameplay of the game, as well as the release date of 2025.

the song of the pillow sword: the white blade: a derivative game of tencent video's chinese animation series "the pillow blade song". judging from the first pv - an 11-minute actual machine demonstration released in august last year, the game continues the animation's unique three-rendering and two-dimensional visual style, and performs well in terms of strike and action.

showa american story: the most "fueled" one, telling the story of a girl played by the player in the united states, which has become an economic and cultural "colony" of japan. the goddess of victory in kimono, the zombies bowing in japanese style, and the index of memes are off the charts. developed by lingkong games, the game was released at the "high energy video game festival" event held on bilibili on september 17, 2021.

the creator said in an interview in 2022, "some netizens summed it up very well:'to tell china's story well, you don't necessarily have to tell china's story'.i thinkthis summary is exactly consistent with our thinking.“since foreigners can make games based on the three kingdoms and kung fu panda, we can also make works based on other countries’ themes from our own perspective.i also think that the chinese people’s interpretation of other topics is itself a part of chinese thought and culture.”

it is worth mentioning that sony's china star program has made an indelible contribution to the promotion of domestic 3a games, including the previous "shadow torch city", "lost souls", "infinite robot", "zero dawn" and "codename: royal guards" which are currently under development, solving many specific problems including technology, funding and international distribution.

judging from the domestic stand-alone game projects that have not yet been launched, it is not difficult to find that chinese game developers really have no shortage of ideas, themes, or even talent."black myth: wukong" has tapped into the rich mine of journey to the west themes, but local culture is simply a blue ocean for the game market.

because of its strong interactivity, 3a games are undoubtedly the most effective content type for cultural output, as can be seen from the great enthusiasm of foreign players for black myth: wukong. in this sense, the value of black myth: wukong to the cultural industry may be far greater than the value of the wandering earth series to domestic films.

i hope that "black myth: wukong" will open the door to a new world full of hope for domestic 3a games.