Phantom Blade Zero dev says it’s not just Black Myth: Wukong, the Chinese console boom has been building: “We’ve wanted to make these kinds of games from the beginning”
Black Myth: Wukong was (and continues to be) an incredible success for Chinese studio Game Science, but it’s certainly not because of that hit that so many huge game releases are on the way from other Chinese developers.
In a new interview with 4Gamer (translated by Automaton), the CEO of Phantom Blade Zero studio S-Game, Liang Qiwei, and vice president, Michael Chang, have explained that this apparent boom happening now is a result of the market and technology changing. “In the past, the market and our technology weren’t mature enough, so we simply weren’t able to make console games,” Qiwei says.
Chang adds: “It’s not like Chinese developers got together and decided to release console games at the same time, but rather, we’ve wanted to make these kinds of games from the beginning.” He explains that it just happens to be now that Chinese developers are “finally able to release high-quality games like this.”
The Chinese market’s interest in games is nothing new, of course, with Qiwei pointing out: “Even before Black Myth: Wukong came out, 30-40% of the sales of most major Japanese and Western games came from China.” This, combined with the experience of the developers, means that now is a great time for AAA development in China. Even if it’s “undeniably true” that “China doesn’t have much experience developing console games or single-player PC games,” Qiwei says that developers have built up “plenty of experience” developing mobile games and subcontractors for things like motion capture and art have also contributed to the work of “AAA game developers in various countries.”
With all those factors combined, the result is that there are plenty of huge games to look forward to from Chinese developers, from Phantom Blade Zero itself to the open-world dress-up game Infinity Nikki. Clearly, Black Myth: Wukong’s popularity is just one part of this ongoing surge of success.