{"id":56191,"date":"2026-01-27T14:37:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=56191"},"modified":"2026-01-27T15:55:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T06:55:50","slug":"over-50-of-phantom-blade-zeros-wishlists-come-from-outside-of-china-according-to-developers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/over-50-of-phantom-blade-zeros-wishlists-come-from-outside-of-china-according-to-developers\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 50% of Phantom Blade Zero\u2019s\u00a0Wishlists\u00a0come from outside of China, according to developers\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Beijing-based developer S-GAME will release the dark&nbsp;kung-fu&nbsp;action RPG&nbsp;<strong>Phantom Blade Zero<\/strong>&nbsp;on September 9&nbsp;for PC and PS5. After&nbsp;hitting&nbsp;more than&nbsp;1 million&nbsp;Wishlists&nbsp;on&nbsp;December 29,&nbsp;only fifteen days&nbsp;after listing, the developers have released an update on the game as it enters the final stages of development.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Phantom Blade Zero - Official Release Date Announcement Trailer | 2026.9.9 Worldwide + Wishlist Now\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ayGk_auu5tk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Addressing fans on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/weibo.com\/ttarticle\/x\/m\/show\/id\/2309405258193101520971?_wb_client_=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Weibo<\/a>&nbsp;in a January 23 post&nbsp;(spotted by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DanielOlimac\/status\/2015325327174856944\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Daniel&nbsp;Camilo<\/a>), S-GAME&#8217;s CEO Liang&nbsp;\u201cSoulframe\u201d&nbsp;Qiwei&nbsp;says Phantom Blade Zero\u2019s&nbsp;Wishlists&nbsp;continue to grow steadily across Steam and PlayStation.&nbsp;While its popularity in China comes as no surprise,&nbsp;Liang&nbsp;notes that&nbsp;over 50% of&nbsp;Wishlists&nbsp;currently&nbsp;come from overseas markets. Outside of China, the game is seeing the most interest in Europe and North America,&nbsp;followed by&nbsp;regions like Brazil,&nbsp;Turkey, and the Middle East.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Liang also addressed the\u00a0discussion\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0been going on\u00a0about where Phantom Blade Zero lies\u00a0in terms of\u00a0subgenres\u00a0(Is it\u00a0a\u00a0soulslike? Is it\u00a0a hack-and-slash?).\u00a0While the game was supposed to get another gameplay showcase focusing on combat during the Chinese New Year (like last year&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Ogm8X8SSyxs?si=TBg1w2PYprC-JTVv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Year of the Snake video<\/a>), S-GAME\u00a0has decided\u00a0to cancel the\u00a0new trailer. The main reason is that the developers\u00a0want to dedicate all their\u00a0remaining\u00a0time and resources to completing and polishing the game itself, but also because, as Liang explains,\u00a0the\u00a0team has been reflecting on whether marketing the game with intense combat\u00a0highlights\u00a0could\u00a0potentially mislead\u00a0players about the game\u2019s overall direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1518\" height=\"854\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1518px) 100vw, 1518px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260127-56191-001.jpg\" alt=\"Phantom Blade Zero\" class=\"wp-image-56196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260127-56191-001.jpg 1518w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260127-56191-001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260127-56191-001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>While reiterating that even his team&nbsp;isn\u2019t&nbsp;sure exactly how it would define Phantom Blade Zero in terms of specific subgenre, Liang explains that&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;a layered, semi-open world sandbox game, and not a&nbsp;Soulslike. While the action is designed to feel satisfying and hard-hitting,&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;not pure hack-and-slash either, he says.&nbsp;Difficulty settings make it more accessible to casual players, and&nbsp;the action is&nbsp;distinguished by a combat system that draws&nbsp;heavily&nbsp;from Chinese martial arts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Liang says that past previews of Phantom Blade Zero may have caused some misunderstandings about its genre and difficulty, so from now on, S-GAME will be focusing on sharing&nbsp;information about its systems and story through formats that&nbsp;will give consumers a good idea about the game, but&nbsp;won\u2019t eat up too much of the&nbsp;developers\u2019&nbsp;resources.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Phantom Blade Zero releases on September 9 for PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/4115450\/Phantom_Blade_Zero\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>\/<a href=\"https:\/\/store.epicgames.com\/en-US\/p\/phantom-blade-zero-e78a35\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Epic Games Store<\/a>) and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.playstation.com\/en-us\/games\/phantom-blade-zero\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PS5<\/a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related:&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/phantom-blade-zero-devs-say-cultural-differences-are-not-a-barrier-in-games-but-a-plus-which-is-why-they-dont-tone-down-themes-for-the-west\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Phantom Blade Zero devs say cultural differences are not a barrier in games but a plus, which is&nbsp;why they don\u2019t tone down themes for the West&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/chinas-aaa-console-game-boom-may-seem-like-it-was-suddenly-triggered-by-black-myth-wukong\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>China\u2019s 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<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After celebrating over 1 million Wishlists in December, S-GAME has announced that Phantom Blade Zero&#8217;s Wishlists continue to grow steadily, with significant global interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":56194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-56191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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