In 2014, Game Science was founded in Shenzhen by seven ex-Tencent Games employees. They had previously worked on a free-to-playMMORPG called Asura Online which was based on The Legend of Wukong, an online novel adapted from Journey to the West.[1][2][3]
Game Science released the mobile games 100 Heroes and Art of War: Red Tides before they started the development of Black Myth: Wukong in 2018.[2] 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.[2] Game Science decided to have a team focused on mobile games and a team focused on single-player games.[4] The Black Myth project's development team moved from Shenzhen to Hangzhou due to "slower pace and lower living costs".[3]
In August 2020, Game Science released the first trailer of Black Myth: Wukong as a way to recruit more talent for the company.[1] At the time, the game's development team had 30 members.[1] Due to the trailer going viral, Game Science received over 10,000 resumes.[1] 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.[1] A day after the trailer's release, there were people showing up at the door of the company asking for a job.[1] The development team expanded to 140 employees according to the game's credit list.[3]
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.[3] When asked about their ownership and relationship by VentureBeat, Hero Games' Dino Ying said that he could not comment on that.[5] As reported in March 2021, Tencent increased its stake in Game Science to 5%.[6] They aimed to help their former employees on some projects, but committed to not interfering with the operation and decision-making of Game Science.[6]
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.[7] 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.[8]HK01 reported that the relevant posts had been mistranslated and that the anonymous criticism quoted by the article cannot be verified.[9] Game Science declined to address questions about the allegations.[10][11][12] Hero Games CEO Dino Ying commented that Game Science tries not to get into "distractions."[5]
Black Myth: Wukong sold 20 million units in its first month,[13] making it one of the fastest-selling games of all time.[14]
^"《黑神话：悟空》被外媒锤了，仗义执言还是别有用心？" ['Black Myth: Wukong' criticized by foreign media. Are they speaking out for justice or do they have ulterior motives?]. GameLook (in Chinese). 23 November 2023. Archived from the original on 27 August 2024. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
^林卓恆 (17 June 2024). "傳黑神話悟空遭政確團體逼害小島秀夫都中槍｜因拒交5500萬顧問費" [Black Myth persecuted by the PC group]. HK01 (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 23 August 2024. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
