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TIER 4 Thu, 12 Sep 2024 14:00:24 +0000
Listen now (59 mins) | Rui Ma and Rob Wynne on the Success of Black Myth: Wukong ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ | | ---|---|--- | | | Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more --- --- Podcasts and Essays on China -- Free Version * * * | | | | Sinica Podcast --- The Chinese Game Industry's J… | 0:00| | | | 58:40| | | | ---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|--- # The Chinese Game Industry's Journey to the West ### Rui Ma and Rob Wynne on the Success of Black Myth: Wukong | | Kaiser Y Kuo --- | Sep 12 --- | --- --- | | | --- | | --- | | --- | | --- | | READ IN APP --- The Chinese game studio Game Science has a hit on its hands! The game Black Myth: Wukong, an action role-playing game (ARPG) based on the Monkey King from _Journey to the West,_ has sold extraordinarily well in China and is breaking new ground in the U.S. market as well. This week, I speak with Rui Ma, who runs Tech Buzz China and is one of the most highly-regarded China tech commentators in the U.S., and with Robert Wynne, an industry veteran with many years in China currently serving as COO of a new game start-up that's still under wraps. They share their insights into the strengths and weaknesses of Black Myth: Wukong and the future of Chinese games. 6:44 - The scale of the phenomenon of _Black Myth: Wukong _ 12:01 - Rui and Rob's thoughts about the game (so far) 17:23 - What Chinese players think of the game, and the difficulty in understanding its esoteric characters for Western players 24:23 - The appeal of mobile games versus console games in China 27:30 - The difficulty of attracting investment [or "How Game Science attracted investment"] 31:06 - Rob's criticism of the game's go-to-market strategy and its lost opportunities 35:46 - The party-state's response so far, and the politics surrounding the game 40:57 - Feng Ji, the founding of Game Science, and his criticisms of the gaming industry 46:01 - AAA Chinese games to look forward to 49:29 - The impressive success stats of _Black Myth: Wukong_ **Recommendations:** **Rui** : Neil deGrasse Tyson's _Astrophysics for People in a Hurry_ **Rob:** The Chinese TV series _Escape from Trilateral Slopes _(_Bi ān shuǐ wǎngshi 边水往事_) (2024) **Kaiser:** Steve Stewart-Williams, _The_ _Ape that Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolv_e _You 're currently a free subscriber to Sinica. Please support the work that I'm doing and upgrade to paid. 非常感谢！_ Upgrade to paid --- | | | Like --- | | Comment --- | | Restack --- (C) 2024 The Sinica Podcast 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 Unsubscribe