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Black Myth: Wukong is one of the best games of 2024. It surprised everyone, being a major game from a Chinese studio (who focus primarily on mobile games), and was incredibly successful from day one. It sold well over 18 million copies upon release.
The players praised the graphics and gameplay, but everyone appreciated how the developers, Game Science, did their best to stay true to the source material, ie, the classical Chinese story “Journey to the West”. And the fact that the whole game was made on a fraction of the budget of other games makes it all unbelievable.
Black Myth: Wukong Was Made On a $43M Budget
According to the financial manager of Game Science in Hangzhou, the total development cost of Black Myth: Wukong was more than 300 million Yuan (or somewhere around $42.5).
“We estimated that the total development cost of Black Myth: Wukong was more than 300 million yuan. In order to help the company enjoy tax benefits in a timely and correct manner, the Hangzhou Taxation Bureau established a long-term communication mechanism with the company, providing us with precise guidance on high-tech enterprise declaration and standardized collection of Research & Development expenses.”
This is mostly due to the fact that making games is way cheaper in China than it is in the West. Additionally, modern Western game companies tend to have unnecessary expenses and the general costs are way higher, so those two combined result in massive budgets.
For comparison, the infamous Concord, a game made by Firewalk Studios and published by Sony that was a massive flop, is believed to have a budget as high as $400M. Concord’s total budget is still debated, as we have dozens of conflicting sources, so take that number with a grain of salt. But still, you can see the massive difference between those two games.
This once again proves that a dedicated team with a vision can do wonders without needing a huge budget.