Journey to the West was very popular on Chinese TV in the 80s-90s, and almost everyone watched it more than once. The game was promoted for four years, and in the end it presented much more than what was shown in the PV. The story of the GUAI, the animation between the chapters, this is a love letter to one generation (maybe two).
Beside, at present, China's economic environment is not good, and I would like to call this sales volume China's lipstick effect.(A $500 ps5 then you are good to go).
Can someone explain to me why this huge success?<p>Is it because of the back story of it being based on a Chinese mythical book and that it rings a bell with this billion person sized market?<p>So far, only looking at the trailer, I did not see anything particularly special that would differentiate it from other recent AAA games.
Here in Southeast Asia we have a wealth of myths and histories that barely made it into popular culture.<p>AAA games are expensive, multi-year projects. Completing such an endeavor requires a ton of faith and persistant backing that cannot be taken for granted in a developing country. The success of this game fills me with hope.
This game also has been notable for observing how power is shifting from traditional media companies like IGN to individual streamers. For those who haven’t been following closely, IGN has accused the game developer for being sexist (based on some poorly translated social media posts) and gave it a low score before properly playing/testing it. The kneejerk reaction from the fed up gamers propelled the game to greater heights. Things have been brewing between big media and streamers for a while and this is probably the wake up call for the big media if it’s not already too late.
I've seen news floating online that some employers in China gave people a day off to play the game. PS5 is getting sold out there because of the game, Sony's stock is also up because of it. Crazy!
This game is interesting partially because it's triggering a realization in the west on how rich China is and how close they are to the west in doing high quality stuff.
There is a huge backlash from progressive gamers and gaming journalists against this game, claiming it lacks a diversity of characters and isn’t inclusive. This attack has resulted in many gamers trying the game just to spite the political bias of journalists. There is also just a huge backlash from prominent streamers and YouTube personalities against the corruption of gaming by “social justice” oriented journalists, DEI consultants, etc. This controversy is a big part of the game’s success.