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概要：不出所料，经济学人报道了黑神话悟空的上市。经济学人给出了积极的评价，称其为中国第一部大片级视频游戏。文中分析了中国游戏的现状，以及为什么这么晚才出现第一部大片级视频游戏，认为中国游戏厂家追求赚快钱，大多开发移动游戏去了，并且在移动游戏领域成绩斐然。

“Black Myth: Wukong” is China’s first blockbuster video game

"黑神话：悟空"成为中国第一部大片级视频游戏

Will there be more?还会有更多吗？

August 29th 2024

YOU ARE thrust into the heat of battle—a clash so violent it has “disturbed heaven and Earth” and “alarmed both demons and gods”. Playing as Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King, you wield the jin gu bang (a fabled staff weighing eight tonnes) and face down Erlang, a three-eyed warrior-god. You must be wily, not to mention nimble: Erlang’s axe can cleave entire mountains in two. (And you thought your day job was stressful.)

你投入到一场激烈的战斗中——这场激烈的冲突“扰乱了天地”，“震惊了鬼神”。你扮演孙悟空，也就是美猴王，挥舞着金箍棒（一根传说中重达八吨的法杖），对手是三眼战神二郎神。你必须机智、敏捷，二郎神的斧头可以劈开一座山。（而你以为自己日常工作压力已经很大了）

“Journey to the West” has been adapted many times: it is the most famous novel in Chinese literature and among the country’s most successful cultural exports. But “Black Myth: Wukong”, released on August 20th, is special. The video game is the first blockbuster release from a Chinese studio. In industry lingo, “Black Myth” is a “AAA” game—a label that denotes big budgets and high production values.

《西游记》已经被改编过很多次：它是中国文学中最著名的小说之一，也是中国最成功的文化输出之一。但于8月20日发布的“黑神话：悟空”仍然是特别的。这款视频游戏 是中国工作室首次推出的大片级产品。在行业术语中，“黑神话”是一款3A级游戏——这意味着大规模预算和高制作价值。

China is a country of gamers. By 2027 there will be more than 700m players there, and the market will be worth $57bn—up from $45.5bn in 2022—according to Niko Partners, a market-research firm. Many Chinese have bemoaned their country’s inability to produce a video game as thrilling as “Grand Theft Auto” or “World of Warcraft” (which originated in Scotland and America respectively). They are hoping “Black Myth” marks the arrival of a new player in the AAA arena.

中国是一个有着众多游戏玩家的国度。根据市场研究公司Niko Partners的数据，到2027年，中国将有超过7亿玩家，市场价值将达到570亿美元——比2022年的455亿美元有所增长。许多中国人对本国无法制作出像“侠盗猎车手”或“魔兽世界”（分别起来自格兰和美国）那样令人兴奋的视频游戏感到遗憾。他们希望“黑神话”标志着3A级游戏领域中中国游戏将占据一席之地。

Why has China been so late to log on? One reason is that the country has been focused on winning the mobile game war. China made four of the ten highest-grossing mobile games of 2023, including the top entry, “Honour of Kings”. Mobile games “monetise much faster”, explains one game producer in China, which counts against designers who want to spend time and money on something more expansive.

为什么中国这么晚才制作出精良的游戏？一个原因是，中国一直专注于赢得移动游戏。中国贡献了2023年收入最高的十款手机游戏中的四款，包括排名第一的“王者荣耀”。一位中国的游戏制作人解释说，移动游戏“赚钱速度更快”，这对那些想要花时间和金钱在更宏大项目上的设计公司来说是不利的。

Nor did it help that gamers did not have the right hardware. From 2000 to 2014 China banned imports of PlayStations and Xboxes, citing concerns for youngsters’ mental health. After the ban was lifted, Chinese studios lacked the expertise to make games for those consoles; it has taken a long time to catch up. China’s game technology is “backwards”, says a developer at a major Chinese gaming firm. “Black Myth” was made with a 3D graphics creation tool called Unreal Engine from an American company, Epic Games.

此外，玩家没有合适的硬件也无济于事。从2000年到2014年，中国以担心年轻人心理健康为由，禁止进口PlayStation和Xbox。禁令解除后，中国工作室缺乏游戏机游戏制作的专业知识；需要很长时间才能迎头赶上。一家主要中国游戏公司的开发者说，中国的游戏技术是“落后的”。“黑神话”是使用美国公司Epic Games的虚幻引擎 这个3D图形创建工具制作的。

Perhaps the biggest reason for the lag is that Chinese gamers are not in the habit of paying to play. Copyright protection is often scant and software piracy rampant. That has made making elaborate games financially unviable. China is richer now, but with the rise of mobile games—which are typically free-to-play and make their money from selling in-game benefits—the habit has stuck. Some Chinese netizens were nonplussed when the pricing for “Black Myth” was announced at 268 yuan ($38).

也许最大的原因是中国玩家不习惯付费玩游戏。版权保护力度不足，软件盗版猖獗。这使得制作精美游戏在财务上变得不可行。中国现在更富有了，但随着移动游戏的兴起——通常免费，通过销售游戏内福利来赚钱——这种习惯已经根深蒂固。一些中国网民对“黑神话”定价268元（38美元）感到困惑。

GameScience, the maker of “Black Myth”, based in Hangzhou, is hoping to reboot that attitude. Feng Ji, its boss, abides by the motto “Move oneself first, then find alignment with the market.” GameScience studied the best titles and historical material to create a game world that would feel true to “Journey to the West”.

“黑神话”的制造商，位于杭州的GameScience，希望重启付费游戏。其老板冯骥遵循的座右铭是“先感动自己，再寻找市场契合点”。GameScience研究了最佳标题和历史材料，希望创造一个忠于“西游记”的游戏世界。

The process took six years, but the determination has paid off. In the day after its launch, “Black Myth” enjoyed 2.2m concurrent players on Steam, a gaming platform—the second-highest figure of any game on record. Most of those players were from China, but it has proved popular abroad, too. In the week after its release, it has been the top-selling game on Steam in America, Germany and Japan. “Black Myth” has earned positive reviews on the platform from 96% of Chinese players and 93% of English-speaking ones.

这个过程花了六年时间，但付出已经得到了回报。在发布后的第二天，“黑神话”在游戏平台Steam上拥有220万同时在线玩家——有记录以来第二高。这些玩家大多来自中国，但在国外也很受欢迎。在发布后的一周内，它成为美国、德国和日本Steam上的畅销游戏。在Steam平台上，“黑神话”得到了96%的中国玩家和93%的说英语的玩家的积极评价。

With “Black Myth” the Monkey King has reaffirmed his reign over Chinese content. The game has already been promoted as a source of nationalist pride. Xinhua, an official news service, says “Black Myth” has succeeded in “telling China’s story with world-class quality”. A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, delighted at a positive news story about China, has argued the game’s approval overseas “reflects the appeal of Chinese culture”.

有了“黑神话”，美猴王重新确立了他对中国文化的统治地位。这款游戏已经被推广为民族自豪感的源泉。官方新闻服务机构新华社表示，“黑神话”成功地“以世界级的质量讲述了中国故事”。中国外交部的一位发言人对关于中国的积极新闻故事感到高兴，认为游戏在海外得到批准，“反映了中国文化的吸引力”。

Some analysts believe that China’s gaming industry will not give up its preference for mobile even if “Black Myth” becomes the stuff of legend. But others are more optimistic. The game’s success proves the viability of blockbuster games in China, they say, and encourages other developers to think big. GameScience has accrued the experience to make subsequent projects easier. Mr Feng asserts that “There will be more Chinese games that can vie with those overseas.” That will come as good news to those who like to monkey around on gaming consoles. ■

一些分析人士认为，即使“黑神话”成为传奇，中国游戏行业也不会放弃对移动游戏的偏好。但也有人更为乐观，他们认为，这款游戏的成功证明了在中国制作大片级游戏的可行性，并鼓励其他开发者大胆想象。GameScience已经积累了后续项目开发的经验。冯先生断言，“将会有更多能与海外游戏竞争的中国游戏。”对于那些喜欢在游戏机上玩耍的人来说，这将是个好消息。■