Despite localization’s key role in achieving success abroad, the industry remains misunderstood in China—something many linguists hope China’s first AAA game will change
Racing through bamboo, riding clouds, and traversing mountains, an armored simian takes on a host of formidable foes with his trusted golden staff, the Jingubang. No translation of the weapon’s name is provided, yet as the fights progress and it swings in full force, no further explanation of its inherent power is needed.
This is Black Myth: Wukong, China’s first blockbuster AAA game. Launched in August, it has topped global charts on gaming platform Steam since.
Inspired by the 16th-century novel Journey to the West, the game is being heralded as “China’s K-pop moment,” dovetailing a national drive to promote Chinese culture overseas—termed “soft power export”—and changing the government’s tune on video games, once disparaged as “spiritual opium” for the masses. The state-owned Cartoon Weekly went as far as to say the game “serves as a kind of ‘144-hour visa-free policy’ within the cultural entertainment industry,” proclaiming it as a means for the world to better understand the country from afar.
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Lost in Translation: The Localization Challenge of “Black Myth: Wukong” is a story from our issue, “New Game.” To read the entire issue, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine.
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