A filepic of people waiting in queue to play the 'Black Myth: Wukong' video game at Gamescom 2023. The game's developer announced a sequel to 'Wukong' at this year's Gamescom. — Reuters
Game Science, the startup behind one of last year’s biggest new role-playing games, is working on a successor in the series, Black Myth: Zhong Kui.
Introduced at the Gamescom conference in Cologne, Germany, a new teaser trailer showcases Game Science’s signature penchant for high-fidelity graphics and taps Chinese folklore again to add a daunting new character to the fantasy universe initiated by Black Myth: Wukong a year ago. Zhong, much like Wukong before him, is a god from ancient myths, with a red beard, dark skin and glowing eyes.
The project is still "little more than an empty folder at this stage,” Tencent Holdings Ltd-backed Game Science wrote on its website for the new game. But the company wanted to update fans after the blockbuster debut of Wukong a year earlier. That game became China’s biggest cultural export in years and set new highs for popularity of action role-playing games, even triggering a surge in tourism to historic sites featured in its meticulously designed environments.
Beyond announcing the project, Game Science added that Wukong’s westward journey story is not yet done, suggesting it will deliver additional content for the first game. The company will retain much of what made the 2024 game such a hit, staying within the action role-playing genre, though it offered no timeline for when it intends to deliver any further updates or downloadable content.
In the year since Black Myth: Wukong shook up the big-budget games industry, other Chinese game developers have followed suit. Released in July, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is one example, exhibiting similar gameplay and a focus on high-end graphics, though it has received mixed reviews on PC distribution platform Steam. – Bloomberg
