China’s AAA console game boom may seem like it was suddenly triggered by Black Myth: Wukong, but Chinese creators have been working towards it for a long time, Phantom Blade Zero devs say

While there have been very few global console game releases coming out of China up until recently, the massively successful launch of Game Science’s Black Myth: Wukong seems almost as if it has opened the floodgates, paving the way for a number of promising new Chinese titles – one of which is S-Game’s upcoming Phantom Blade Zero. However, according to S-Game’s CEO Lian Qiwei (Soulframe) and vice president Michael Chang, the foundations for this movement have been in place for a long time.

When asked in an interview with 4Gamer whether there was a specific trigger that made them want to step into the global console game market, Chang, who is the art director of Phantom Blade Zero, says that Chinese creators have always been heavily influenced by Japanese and Western console games, and have always aspired to make such games themselves.

However, up until recently, circumstances had not allowed them to do so – “In the past, the market and our technology weren’t mature enough, so we simply weren’t able make console games.”

Chang goes on to explain that “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. It’s just that now, at this exact timing, we’re finally able to release high-quality games like this.” According to the Phantom Blade Zero developer, there are multiple Chinese companies currently working on new console games, and they all seem to be spurring each other on.

But what contributed to conditions in China finally ripening for independent AAA game development? Qiwei, Phantom Blade Zero’s producer, mentions two significant factors, the first being that China has been a huge market for both PC and console games for a long time.

“Even before Black Myth: Wukong came out, 30-40% of the sales of most major Japanese and Western games came from China. This has been the case regardless of whether a game has Chinese themes or not, as seen with titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Palworld and Needy Girl Overdose. It’s a clear fact that China consistently accounts for at least 30-40% of sales.”

But aside from favorable market conditions, Chinese game developers’ years of experience doing outsourced development work for foreign studios have contributed to a high level of expertise, Qiwei emphasizes.

“In terms of technology, China doesn’t have much experience developing console games or singleplayer PC games. That’s undeniably true. However, China has gained plenty of experience in mobile game development over the past few decades. This experience is now being put to use in the development of singleplayer PC games. Also, Chinese subcontractors for art, motion capture, 3D capture etc. have been suppliers for AAA game developers in various countries.”

S-Game’s CEO argues that these decades of doing outsourced work for other studios have contributed to China’s “industrial pipeline maturing,” and that all this accumulated experience and knowledge is now being put to use in making original games.