We estimated that the total development cost of Black Myth: Wukong is more than 300 million RMB ($43M USD). In order to help the company enjoy tax incentives in a timely and correct manner, the Hangzhou tax department has established a long-term communication mechanism with the company to provide us with accurate guidance on the declaration of high-tech enterprises and the standardization of research and development expenses. The financial manager of Hangzhou Game Science Interactive Technology Co., Ltd., the game developer, said,
In 2023, Game Science will enjoy an additional deduction of more than 28 million RMB ($4M USD) for R&D expenses.
Bicone
But do you trust them?
ShadowConsular
Always was baffled by people saying how “it’s mostly Chinese players” that bought the game. Like Chinese customers and sales are somehow less worthy. Talk about dog whistles.
Junnius
Wukong 45M x Skull and Bones 800M…. no way…
BitingArtist
An honest game succeeding with no hidden stores or bullshit scams, this is worth celebrating. Every Wukong that succeeds, and every Suicide Squad that fails, warns shareholders not to be stupid.
Ok_History1736
Wow, that’s a lot of money!
Kaquillar
It can’t be true, the AAAA games can’t cost less than 100-150m, Ubisoft and other studios are experienced veterans, they can’t be wrong!
tonihurri
China is the new Montreal lol
Zetra3
You can save a lot of money when your employees pay is almost none existent.
Bicone
According to some guy who contacted chinese IRS? That’s a promising source.
WrastleGuy
That’s like FIVE Joker 2’s
vKEVUv
There definetly is “recipe” for developing AAA scoped titles within proper timeframe and without insanely bloated budgets. GameScience only has 140 employees and developing AAA ARPG with quality like that is hard task but they did it.
In west theres Sucker Punch a studio that developed beautiful AAA new IP Ghost of Tsushima using amazing proprietary tech and that project had 60 million budget including marketing. They also are relatively small in comparison to other AAA studios since they had 150 employees during Ghost of Tsushimas release and restrain from overreliance on outsourcing.
illsk1lls
Chads
Nainetsu
$43M for a fun AAA game vs. $800M for Ubislop trash.
You choose.
VeryNiceBalance_LOL
If China stopped releasing nothing but oversexualized dogshit titles that focus on nothing else but tits and mtx, there’s a massive potential for them to become more profitable and have a better reputation than the West.
reks1095
Average 400M Concord fan vs Gigachad 43M BMW enjoyer
fatso486
I’m really surprised that a new developer can secure such a large budget. It seems like a high-risk investment, even though they made 20 times the initial investment, especially for a debut project. Does anyone have insights on how they pulled it off? While the $43M figure might be in line with or even below the industry standard for a AAA project of this size, I honestly expected it to be much lower, particularly coming from China.
Nightrunner2016
Revenue is at over $850mil so the return on investment there is astronomical! Studios need to take note.
pickrunner18
What’s with cost obsession? Been seeing it all the time lately across all forms of entertainment. Why is this something anyone cares about?
mrwobblez
To be fair, I’m guessing they pay their devs like crap and make them work 6 days a week…
Aggravating-Bus3326
that’s why it doesn’t compare to the AAAA Skull and bones
HumphreyLee
Company that pays its programmers half of the wage they would make in most of the rest of the world makes a game cheaper than it would cost in most of the world. Cool. I’m not deriding it toward the point that some people are making that you do not need bloated budgets to make a quality game – I am not even sure why that even needs saying, we get tons of great games for lower budgets each year, even from AAA studios like with Astro Bot – but some people seem to be using this as a “gotcha” in sort of “games NEVER need to cost money” deal when I guess that’s true if you always want your product to be made by underpaid foreign labor.
Possiblythroaway
oh wow its almost like its been blatantly obvious for a decade that the ”games are too expensive to make” is nothing but garbage and the bloated budgets are actually just mismanaged funds
According-Yoghurt548
When workers hired due to their skills not diversity
Mwakay
r/gaming suddenly realizing games don’t cost much to make and it’s just a bogus argument publishers have been using for years to raise prices
Ahtman1
Godzilla Minus One (15 million) cost less than a single episode of She Hulk (25 million).
KF-Sigurd
They had a very focused vision for the game (no open world, no live service, development started and finished with no major delays) it makes sense it didn’t cost hundreds of millions like the latest western live service flop (Suicide Squad, Skull and Bones, and now Concord).
A similarly sized and focused game Stellar Blade also cost around $30-50 million to make.
Major_Stranger
What’s the average salary of a Wukong programmer, artist, or QA tester? I don’t know where their studio is in China, but if your studio is in California, Vancouver, or anywhere where the cost of living is high, i’d expect the wage to be equally high.
JoBro_Summer-of-99
If it’s a Chinese company I imagine they achieved this via unethical means. Is this really a win?
30 Comments
(From local tax bureau)
We estimated that the total development cost of Black Myth: Wukong is more than 300 million RMB ($43M USD). In order to help the company enjoy tax incentives in a timely and correct manner, the Hangzhou tax department has established a long-term communication mechanism with the company to provide us with accurate guidance on the declaration of high-tech enterprises and the standardization of research and development expenses. The financial manager of Hangzhou Game Science Interactive Technology Co., Ltd., the game developer, said,
In 2023, Game Science will enjoy an additional deduction of more than 28 million RMB ($4M USD) for R&D expenses.
But do you trust them?
Always was baffled by people saying how “it’s mostly Chinese players” that bought the game. Like Chinese customers and sales are somehow less worthy. Talk about dog whistles.
Wukong 45M x Skull and Bones 800M…. no way…
An honest game succeeding with no hidden stores or bullshit scams, this is worth celebrating. Every Wukong that succeeds, and every Suicide Squad that fails, warns shareholders not to be stupid.
Wow, that’s a lot of money!
It can’t be true, the AAAA games can’t cost less than 100-150m, Ubisoft and other studios are experienced veterans, they can’t be wrong!
China is the new Montreal lol
You can save a lot of money when your employees pay is almost none existent.
According to some guy who contacted chinese IRS? That’s a promising source.
That’s like FIVE Joker 2’s
There definetly is “recipe” for developing AAA scoped titles within proper timeframe and without insanely bloated budgets. GameScience only has 140 employees and developing AAA ARPG with quality like that is hard task but they did it.
In west theres Sucker Punch a studio that developed beautiful AAA new IP Ghost of Tsushima using amazing proprietary tech and that project had 60 million budget including marketing. They also are relatively small in comparison to other AAA studios since they had 150 employees during Ghost of Tsushimas release and restrain from overreliance on outsourcing.
Chads
$43M for a fun AAA game vs. $800M for Ubislop trash.
You choose.
If China stopped releasing nothing but oversexualized dogshit titles that focus on nothing else but tits and mtx, there’s a massive potential for them to become more profitable and have a better reputation than the West.
Average 400M Concord fan vs Gigachad 43M BMW enjoyer
I’m really surprised that a new developer can secure such a large budget. It seems like a high-risk investment, even though they made 20 times the initial investment, especially for a debut project. Does anyone have insights on how they pulled it off? While the $43M figure might be in line with or even below the industry standard for a AAA project of this size, I honestly expected it to be much lower, particularly coming from China.
Revenue is at over $850mil so the return on investment there is astronomical! Studios need to take note.
What’s with cost obsession? Been seeing it all the time lately across all forms of entertainment. Why is this something anyone cares about?
To be fair, I’m guessing they pay their devs like crap and make them work 6 days a week…
that’s why it doesn’t compare to the AAAA Skull and bones
Company that pays its programmers half of the wage they would make in most of the rest of the world makes a game cheaper than it would cost in most of the world. Cool. I’m not deriding it toward the point that some people are making that you do not need bloated budgets to make a quality game – I am not even sure why that even needs saying, we get tons of great games for lower budgets each year, even from AAA studios like with Astro Bot – but some people seem to be using this as a “gotcha” in sort of “games NEVER need to cost money” deal when I guess that’s true if you always want your product to be made by underpaid foreign labor.
oh wow its almost like its been blatantly obvious for a decade that the ”games are too expensive to make” is nothing but garbage and the bloated budgets are actually just mismanaged funds
When workers hired due to their skills not diversity
r/gaming suddenly realizing games don’t cost much to make and it’s just a bogus argument publishers have been using for years to raise prices
Godzilla Minus One (15 million) cost less than a single episode of She Hulk (25 million).
They had a very focused vision for the game (no open world, no live service, development started and finished with no major delays) it makes sense it didn’t cost hundreds of millions like the latest western live service flop (Suicide Squad, Skull and Bones, and now Concord).
A similarly sized and focused game Stellar Blade also cost around $30-50 million to make.
What’s the average salary of a Wukong programmer, artist, or QA tester? I don’t know where their studio is in China, but if your studio is in California, Vancouver, or anywhere where the cost of living is high, i’d expect the wage to be equally high.
If it’s a Chinese company I imagine they achieved this via unethical means. Is this really a win?
They saved 7md by not hiring the usual suspects.