Chinese video game "Black Myth: Wukong" shot to the top of Steam's "most-played games" list after its official launch on Tuesday, as global gamers rushed to play the highly-anticipated game.
Developed by Hangzhou-based Game Science, the video game is now available on platforms including Steam, Play Station 5, Epic Games Store and Tencent WeGame.
According to data on Steam, over 1.04 million gamers were playing "Black Myth: Wukong" at 11:00 Beijing time on Tuesday, just an hour after its debut.
The game is inspired by the ancient Chinese tale "Journey to the West", and its release marks a bold foray by Chinese game developers into a market long dominated by Western triple-A titles.
Triple-A games are typically defined as high-cost, high-volume, high-quality stand-alone titles, a market long dominated by Japanese, American and French companies.
"Black Myth: Wukong" uses Nvidia technology, a market leader in AI and graphic computing, to give players a visual feast with full ray tracing effects. This advanced technique is used by visual effects artists to create lifelike graphics with cinematic image quality.
The Chinese role-playing game won the Best Visuals award at last August's Gamescom in Cologne, Germany - one of the world's largest gaming events. It captured the attention of the global gaming community and sparked excitement among players worldwide.
"What I found really cool was definitely the monster design, especially the different types they showcased. The tiger in that blood pool left a deep impression on me. In general, I got a glimpse of Chinese culture through it, like through other films, and that really appeals to me," said a German player at the event.
As "Black Myth: Wukong" soars the charts, other Chinese cultural offerings, such as the science fiction novel "The Three-Body Problem", the film "The Wandering Earth", and the adventure game "Genshin Impact", are also pulling in global audiences in recent years.
Global gamers push Chinese video game "Black Myth: Wukong" to top of Steam list
Global gamers push Chinese video game "Black Myth: Wukong" to top of Steam list
The 11th Beijing Xiangshan Forum opened in Beijing on Friday morning with hotspots around the world and security cooperation taking the center stage.
The opening ceremony was attended by more than 600 official representatives from over 100 countries and international organizations, including nearly 300 heads of official delegations and officials from various countries. The forum is held with the theme of "Promoting Peace for a shared future".
China's Defense Minister Dong Jun attended the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech. He first read out a congratulatory letter from President Xi Jinping to the forum. Then, he mentioned in his speech the current hot issues including the Ukrainian crisis and the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict.
Dong said "there is no winner in a war and a conflict, and there is no way out if we just confront each other." He also stressed that promoting peace talks is the only way out, and the fundamental way out.
Two plenary sessions were held after the opening ceremony. At the first session, participants exchanged views on "security cooperation and prosperity and stability in the Asia-Pacific region", and official representatives from Vietnam, Singapore, Pakistan, Fiji, Russia and Malaysia spoke at the meeting.
The theme of the second plenary session was "multipolarization and the direction of international order", and defense ministers or military generals from six countries including Cambodia, Tanzania, Cameroon and Iran delivered speeches.
The topics all focus on security hotspots. Participants include not only developing and developed countries, but also representatives, experts and scholars from the closely-watched countries such as the United States, Russia, and Ukraine.
In interviews, many participants said that the Beijing Xiangshan Forum is committed to promoting dialog, exchanges and cooperation among defense agencies, militaries and international organizations of various countries, and is playing an active role in promoting regional security and stability and maintaining world peace and development.
The ongoing Beijing Xiangshan Forum, which runs until Saturday, will also hold eight parallel group sessions, focusing on themes such as the correct way for China and the United States to get along, European security trends and Middle East peace vision. This year, a new session on outer space security has been set up for participants to jointly discuss issues on outer space security governance.
Initiated in 2006, the Beijing Xiangshan Forum is a high-level security and defense forum in the Asia-Pacific with significant international influence.
11th Beijing Xiangshan Forum opens with focus on hotspots, security cooperation
