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Game Science
Game Science (Chinese: 游戏科学; pinyin: Yóuxì Kēxué) is a Chinese video game development and publishing company, best-known for its first internationally released AAA-game, Black Myth: Wukong (2024). It is headquartered in Shenzhen with an additional office in Hangzhou. History Game Science was founded on 13 June 2014.[2] The seven founding members were former employees of Tencent and worked as developers for the massively multiplayer online game Asura there.[3] At the time, China's mobile games market was rapidly expanding, so they made the decision to develop mobile games in order to survive as a studio.[3] Game Science, in collaboration with NetEase as publisher, developed 100 Heroes, a mobile game inspired by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.[3] It attracted 500 thousand players in the first month and nearly 800 thousand players in its first year.[3] Yang Qi proposed a single-player game as their next project, but the idea was shelved due to the high cost and risks for a new studio.[3] Their next mobile game would be Art of War: Red Tides.[3] Lilith Games CEO Wang Xiwen introduced Feng Ji and Hero Games CEO Daniel Wu to each other, after which Wu invested in Game Science.[3] During a meeting in those early days, Game Science committed to pursue a vision of creating games that moved them personally (adopting the studio slogan 只做打动自己的游戏).[3] The studio's vision also retained the ideas reflected in Feng Ji's 2007 article "Who Murdered Our Games?" (谁谋杀了我们的游戏),[4] which offers a critique from the perspective of a game planner, arguing that many games fail before they even leave the development stage, these failures occur when development teams lack excitement for the games they are creating, the industry has fostered a mindset where players are treated like livestock in the pursuit for engagement and profit, and the industry is moving toward capital-driven practices that alienate players and degrade their experiences.[5] After the mobile games 100 Heroes and Art of War: Red Tides, Game Science started the development of Black Myth: Wukong in 2018.[6] The decision to develop an AAA game, according to operations director Lan Weiyi, came after the realization that there were more Steam users from China than the US.[6] Game Science decided to have a team focused on mobile games and a team focused on single-player games.[7] The Black Myth project's development team moved from Shenzhen to Hangzhou due to "slower pace and lower living costs".[8] In August 2020, Game Science released the first trailer of Black Myth: Wukong as a way to recruit more talent for the company.[9] At the time, the game's development team had 30 members.[9] Due to the trailer going viral, Game Science received over 10,000 resumes.[9] Some were from AAA gaming companies with candidates even from outside of China who were willing to apply for a Chinese working visa at their own cost.[9] A day after the trailer's release, there were people showing up at the door of the company asking for a job.[9] The development team expanded to 140 employees according to the game's credit list.[8] The South China Morning Post reports that Hero Games acquired a 19% stake in Game Science through its wholly-owned subsidiary Tianjin Hero Financial Holding Technology in 2017, but sold the stake in 2022 with payment partly outstanding.[8] When asked about their ownership and relationship by VentureBeat, Hero Games' Dino Ying said that he could not comment on that.[10] As reported in March 2021, Tencent obtained a total stake of 5% in Game Science.[11][12] They aimed to help their former employees on some projects, but committed to not interfering with the operation and decision-making of Game Science.[11][12] In 2023, IGN released a report that alleged a history of sexism within the company, which contained as evidence screenshots of personal posts by company figures in Chinese social media, as well as suggestive hiring posters from 2015.[13] Chinese outlets HK01, an online news portal, and GameLook, a game-industry research website, criticized IGN's report, arguing that the article uses examples taken out of context and vulgar but not sexist.[14][15] HK01 reported that the relevant posts had been mistranslated and that the anonymous criticism quoted by the article cannot be verified.[15] Game Science declined to address questions about the allegations.[16][17][18] On social media, Khee Hoon Chan, a co-author of the IGN article, called for online piracy and made explicit comments toward Game Science.[19][20][21] Hero Games CEO Dino Ying commented that Game Science tries not to get into distractions.[10] Black Myth: Wukong was released in August 2024 and sold 20 million units in its first month,[22] making it one of the fastest-selling games of all time.[23] In 2024, Game Science and the electric automobile maker BYD Company established a strategic partnership to digitize China's national treasures and landmarks to contribute to their protection and provide a scientific basis for future restoration work.[24][25] This involves 3D scanning in multiple provinces, starting in Shanxi which was heavily featured in Black Myth: Wukong, across all of China.[24][25] Games and products
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