Cultural authenticity hasn’t always been crucial to video games.
Few Italians complain about Super Mario’s stereotypical accent or Indians about limb-stretching Street Fighter yogi Dhalsim. Yet authenticity — or lack thereof — is becoming increasingly important, at least given the mixed reception of two recent multimillion-dollar titles.
Black Myth: Wukong looks set to be the most surprising gaming success of 2024 and is being hailed as China’s first AAA video game, industry jargon for a tentpole title with the budget and quality of a Hollywood blockbuster. While China has to date enjoyed success in mobile and PC gaming, those lucrative sectors carry relatively little prestige. That makes Wukong’s breakout a landmark event.