Black Myth Wukong development budget highlights China's competitive edge vs the US
The first gameplay trailer for Black Myth: Wukong debuted all the way back in August 2020. Four years later, after much anticipation and hype, the game officially came out on the PS5 and PC on August 20, 2024, and took the gaming industry by storm.
In just three days, Black Myth: Wukong sold a staggering 10 million copies with the figure jumping to 18 million in two weeks. The title reportedly moved on to 20 million units sold with estimates of 30-40 million for the first year after release.
These figures are a roaring success for Game Science, the developers of Black Myth: Wukong, especially when we consider the total development costs associated with the game.
According to the Financial Director of Game Science, Black Myth: Wukong cost “more than 300 million yuan” to make. At the current exchange rate, 300 million RMB equates to $42.39 million. Taken alone, this is quite a substantial sum. But, when you consider the cost of AAA titles made in the West, Black Myth: Wukong’s development cost puts companies like Sony and Ubisoft to shame.
Black Myth: Wukong budget is a fraction of games like Concord
To put the $42.39 million development cost of Black Myth: Wukong in perspective, consider that Sony’s gigantic failure, Concord, cost around an insane $400 million to make. Even after incurring such high costs, Sony couldn’t deliver a good game and had to shutter the project after only two weeks.
Similarly, God of War Ragnarok, a single-player title like Black Myth: Wukong, has a reported production cost of around $200 million. However, unlike Concord, God of War Ragnarok is a financial success for Sony as the game sold around 15 million copies in its debut year.
Finally, the latest Halo game, Halo Infinite is estimated to have cost 100s of millions. Sadly, the title isn’t as big of a success as Microsoft wanted it to be.
We are seeing a pattern here. AAA titles developed by Western studios cost an insane amount of money to make. Money that, in many cases, the studios will never be able to recover.
Here, one must ask: Why is the development cost of Black Myth: Wukong comparatively low?
Reasons for low development cost of Black Myth: Wukong
The biggest possible reason for such a wide discrepancy between the cost of development of Black Myth: Wukon and something like God of War Ragnarok is the pay gap between a software developer in China and the US. Based on estimates available online, a game developer in China takes home about $43,255 per year, on average, vs $86,200 for the US market.
In other words, employing game developers is 2x cheaper in China than in the US, resulting in huge cost savings for studios.
Additionally, Chinese authorities are known to offer massive subsidies to boost production. This is also the case for the video gaming industry, as Hangzhou, the city where Game Science is headquartered, provides 100 million RMB ($14.13 million) in annual funding to the video game industry.
Finally, Game Science also enjoys tax benefits as hinted by the studio’s Financial Director.
All these things combined make it possible for Chinese developers to make a AAA title like Black Myth: Wukong at a fraction of the cost of studios like Ubisoft.
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