Game Science is a Chinese video game development and publishing company founded by Feng Ji and Yang Qi in 2014. The studio is headquartered in Shenzhen and has an additional office in Hangzhou. It focuses on developing action role-playing games,but it has previously worked on mobile games and maintains a merchandise brand.
Game Science is best known for developing the video game Black Myth:Wukong (2024),which has expanded into the Black Myth series.
History
Formation and early period (2014–2017)
Game Science was founded on 13 June 2014.[3] The seven founding members were former Tencent employees who worked as developers on the massively multiplayer online gameAsura at the company.[4]
Feng Ji,CEO of Game Science
When Game Science was founded,China's mobile games market was expanding,so the studio pivoted toward mobile development to stay afloat.[4] The studio developed 100 Heroes,a mobile game inspired by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms,in collaboration with the publisher NetEase.[4] The game attracted 500 thousand players in the first month and nearly 800 thousand players in its first year.[4] Yang Qi proposed a single-player game as their next project,but the idea was shelved due to the high costs and risks involved for a newly established studio.[4] Instead,Game Science developed the mobile game Art of War:Red Tides.[4] In 2019,the game was acquired by Chaoxi Guangnian,a video games company subsidiary to ByteDance.[5] During these early years,Lilith Games CEO Wang Xiwen introduced Game Science CEO Feng Ji (both were Tencent colleagues) and Hero Games CEO Daniel Wu to each other.[4] This early connection led to Hero Games investing in Game Science.[4]
From its inception,Game Science embraced a vision of creating games that personally move and resonate with its developers—a philosophy highlighted on the studio's official website.[4] During a speech at an art exhibition in April 2025,Feng Ji reaffirmed this as a core value of the studio.[6] He explained that projects advance most effectively when game developers,as players themselves,deeply understand both the work and its audience,but emphasized that developers ultimately only represent themselves and must therefore continuously experiment to find the intersection between themselves and players.[6]
The studio's philosophy also reflects ideas expressed in Feng Ji's 2007 article "Who Murdered Our Games?" (谁谋杀了我们的游戏).[7] This writing 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 mentality where players are treated like livestock in the pursuit for engagement and profit,and the industry has a dark side characterized by capital-driven practices that alienate players and degrade their experiences.[8] In a 2024 interview with China Central Television,Feng Ji discussed this perspective,explaining that game developers should focus on gameplay and storytelling to captivate players but must remain cautious not to fall into capital-driven practices,emphasizing that a reasonable standard is whether you would recommend your children,friends,and relatives to play your games with peace of mind.[9]
Black Myth:Wukong (2018–present)
After the mobile games 100 Heroes and Art of War:Red Tides,Game Science started the development of Black Myth:Wukong in 2018.[10] The decision to develop an AAA game came after the realization that there were more Steam users from China than the United States,indicating that China's premium games market was undergoing a transformation,according to operations director Lan Weiyi.[10] Before the development on the game began,Game Science conducted a company-wide survey that revealed that action role-playing games were the games with the longest playtimes on Steam among the staff,which led to a focus on the action role-playing genre for both the studio and the Black Myth project.[11] Feng Ji said that this approach would allow them to better understand and empathize with players,because they themselves would be players of the types of games they were creating.[11] Game Science decided to maintain teams for both mobile and single-player games.[12] Considering the differences in development cycles between these two kinds of games,Feng Ji and Yang Qi sought a new environment appropriate for a team that worked on single-player games.[11] Ultimately,the Black Myth development team moved from Shenzhen to Hangzhou due to its "slower pace and lower living costs".[13]
In August 2020,Game Science released the first trailer of Black Myth:Wukong as a way to recruit more talent for the company.[14] At the time,the game's development team had about 30 members.[14] Due to the trailer going viral,Game Science received over 10,000 resumes.[14] 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.[14] A day after the trailer's release,there were people showing up at the door of the company asking for a job.[14] The development team expanded to 140 employees according to the game's credit list.[13]
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.[13] When asked about their ownership and relationship by VentureBeat,Hero Games chairman Dino Ying said that he could not comment on that.[15] As reported in March 2021,Tencent obtained a total stake of 5% in Game Science.[16][17] They aimed to help their former employees on some projects,but committed to not interfering with the operation and decision-making of Game Science.[16][17]
In 2023,IGN released a report that alleged a history of sexism within the company,citing screenshots of personal posts by company figures in Chinese social media and suggestive hiring posters from 2015 as examples.[18] Chinese-language 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.[19][20]HK01 and Gamebase reported that the relevant posts had been mistranslated.[20][21]HK01 also reported that the anonymous criticism quoted by the article cannot be verified.[20] Game Science declined to address questions about the allegations.[22][23][24] On social media,Khee Hoon Chan,a co-author of the IGN article,called for online piracy and made explicit comments toward Game Science.[25][26][27] Hero Games' Dino Ying commented that Game Science tries not to get into distractions.[15]
Black Myth:Wukong was released in August 2024 and sold 20 million units in its first month,[28] making it one of the fastest-selling games of all time.[29]
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.[30][31] This involves 3D scanning in multiple provinces,starting in Shanxi which was heavily featured in Black Myth:Wukong,across all of China.[30][31]
In January 2025,Game Science released a Chinese New Year short film announcing its official merchandise brand BLACKMYTH.[32][33][34] The studio conceived it as a gamer lifestyle brand with products related to Black Myth:Wukong and other content over time.[33][34] A dedicated team,separate from the game developers,was formed to handle the design,production,and operation of the brand.[33][34] The brand initially built a store presence on online platforms.[35] The first BLACKMYTH brick-and-mortar store was openend in Hangzhou in September 2025.[36]
↑ "《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.
1 2 3 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: Wukong developers rumored to be persecuted by political groups, with Hideo Kojima caught in crossfire - due to refusal to pay 55 million consulting fee]. HK01 (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 23 August 2024. Screenshot captured from the original on 9 July 2025.
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