On August 20, the domestic 3A (high cost, high quality, high volume) stand-alone machine"Black Myth: Wukong" (hereinafter referred to as "Wukong") officially launched and quickly detonated public opinion. 3 days, sales have exceeded 10 million copies.
The agency forecasts that the final sales of "Wukong" will reach 20 million copies, and the final sales will exceed 6 billion yuan. Industry insiders said that the success of "Wukong" will bring new changes to the Chinese market structure.
Domestic 3A stand-alone game milestone
"I thought it would be very popular, but I didn’t expect it to be so popular," said a senior game practitioner. At the end of 2023, at the TGA annual conference known as the "Oscars" of the global game industry, "Wukong" won the attention of the world: against the international top masterpieces, officially set on August 20, 2024.
As of 9 pm on August 23, the total sales of "Wukong" exceeded 10 million copies, and the sales were nearly 3 billion yuan. For the explosion of "Wukong", industry insiders believe that this will bring new changes to the domestic game market.
The most obvious change is in the domestic console game market. Compared with the mobile game market, which has long exceeded 100 billion yuan in scale, console games are much inferior. In the first half of this year, the total sales of the domestic console game market were less than 700 million yuan. The sales of "Wukong" in just three days are four times that.
Industry insiders admit that the development of domestic stand-alone games is facing many challenges. "The popularity rate of host devices is low, and the public is more accustomed to short and fast mobile games, and there is almost no whole time to experience stand-alone games."
In fact, the sales of "Wukong" proved that it far exceeded the concept of "hot game" in the traditional sense. With the popularity of "Wukong", console game stores around the world ushered in a rare "hot-selling frenzy". ShanghaiThe owner of the console game store revealed that sales have increased sharply in recent weeks. "I’m really too busy, so we temporarily hired two helpers."
"This game cannot immediately change the ecology of the domestic game industry, but it may indeed bring some turnaround," said the head of a game manufacturer in Shanghai. "If one day, under the catalysis of a series of popular games, game consoles can develop in China, then the ecology of 3A games can be formed."
Game meets science
As the "crown jewel" of the game industry, the landing of 3A games not only means that the domestic game industry is becoming more mature, but also shows that the development idea of "technology + art" is being recognized by more practitioners.
Behind the 3A game is not only the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars, but also the construction of a highly complex game industry production pipeline and the cultivation of talents.
The game producer bluntly said that the difficulty of making domestic 3A games is very high: "Many processes are the first time to explore, and the whole body is affected. Take cutscenes as an example, not only the film scheduling and command, but also the 3D modeling."
For example, a map 3D modeler at a Shanghai-based game company said: "There are a lot of models on a map, and there are potential interaction designs. If you fine-tune the terrain, you have to overturn and redo it."
The "technology content" of "Wukong" is very high. For example, one industry insider said, the special effects shot of the brush writing in the cutscene, "the brush interacts with the paper when writing, and the binding requirements of the model bones are extremely high. In addition, the ink follows the trajectory from deep to shallow, which is’the technology that can ** text ‘."
"Although it is still far from the international top level, it at least gives us hope." Game reviewer Lao Dai believes that under the current technology, the completion of "Wukong" is high enough.
In recent years, more and more domestic game companies have begun to pay attention to the investment and application of technology in games. Liu Wei, chairperson of miHoYo, summed up the company’s development positioning as "science and technology innovation + merchandise". Ma Xiaoyi, senior vice-president of Tencent Group, bluntly said: "Games are not an isolated development industry. Since its birth, it has always been mutually driven and symbiotic with cutting-edge technology." CEO Ding Lei has repeatedly emphasized the importance of scientific research investment, and has disclosed the intensity of R & D investment for several consecutive quarters.
The "Research Report on Game Technology Capability and Technology Value" released by the Game Working Committee of the China Audio and Digital Association shows that 81% of respondents believe that games have promoted the development of AI technology; 91.4% of respondents believe that some technological innovations in the game field have a certain role in promoting the physical field.
The Business Inspiration of "Wukong"
In addition to the hustle and bustle, from a commercial perspective, the popularity of "Wukong" is accidental and irreproducible.
"A stand-alone game is not a good business model," a senior game analyst admitted that betting all your money to develop a 3A game is too risky.
In fact, the "risk-return mismatch" of console games has left some console game makers on thin ice. Take CD Projekt, a well-known Polish game manufacturer, as an example. Its "Witcher" series once made a lot of money, but when "Cyberpunk 2077" was first launched, the game had a poor reputation due to bugs, and the company was once facing huge losses. The game also suffered a single-player development error, resulting in a single-year loss of hundreds of millions of yuan.
Of course, the success of "Wukong" provides two lessons for the industry.
First of all, we need to deepen the "single-point breakthrough" innovation and make good use of "addition and subtraction". In addition to the story and graphics, "Wukong" actually draws a lot from the operation mechanisms of mature games in terms of action combat, such as "Shock Knife", "Energy Storage Chute" and "Skill Plus", and simplifies them. This idea will undoubtedly greatly reduce the threshold for player operation and expand the player group.
Industry insiders believe that when making AAA games, innovation should be based on one point, and mature experience should be borrowed as much as possible in other aspects. In fact, the success of another domestic game, "Yuan God", also lies in this: the game borrows from the Nintendo game "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" in the early big world gameplay, while focusing on "mobile" innovation.
"It’s not good to be innovative everywhere. You have to learn to stand on the shoulders of your predecessors," said one market analyst.
Secondly, capital is essential. 3A game development costs are high, the development cycle is long, and it consumes a lot of resources, which requires a lot of capital. From a global perspective, except for some established 3A game manufacturers, almost all 3A game studios have the support of hardware manufacturers, such as,From a domestic perspective, Tencent and NetEase are the largest "top gifters" in the industry.
"A successful AAA game requires not only capital, but also mature production line experience, publicity and distribution resources. It is impossible for a small team to cover everything, and it needs the support of large capital." A game industry analyst at a brokerage said.
Industry insiders believe that the success of "Wukong" will allow domestic leading game manufacturers to provide more support to small teams with strong technical strength. If the small team can obtain as much capital and resources as possible while maintaining their own independence, it will undoubtedly provide more guarantees for the success of the project.