Zhou now sees a chance for the situation in the domestic industry to change. “The success of Black Myth will definitely bring more funding into the sector, which will make more game developers willing to try to develop such big projects,” he said.
However, it might not benefit everyone equally.
“Mature investors will choose mature teams,” Zhou said. “So resources will further converge towards the top game developers.”
Olivia Qin, a mobile game developer based in Shenzhen who focuses on simulation games, said the success of Black Myth is “definitely a boost in confidence for Chinese game developers”.
“It proves that even for those working on genres not considered as lucrative, it will still yield good results if (developers) put their hearts into it,” she said.
Qin, however, added that she will not consider making AAA games herself. “The cost is too high and it takes too long,” she said. “Not every small studio can get investment from Tencent.”
Game developers remain cautious about speculating when China might see another AAA title, especially one with the potential to become another global hit.
The success of Black Myth “may be able to be replicated, but that period could be very long”, Chan said. “Game Science has spent about a decade accumulating the experiences and the ability to build such games.”
Zhou said a few big single-player titles are currently under development, and are expected to launch within three years. But for something else on the scale of Black Myth: Wukong, “it could take nine years, optimistically”, he said.
This article was first published on SCMP.
