On October 29, the domestic AAA wuxia action game Phantom Blade Zero was officially released, launching on PC and PS5 platforms. According to Lanjing News, the total development cost of Phantom Blade Zero ranges between 300 and 400 million yuan. In comparison, Black MYTH - Steam Edition: Wukong underwent seven years of development, with total development costs around 400 million yuan.
Development Timeline
2017: Liang Qiwei began early conceptualization of Phantom Blade Zero's worldview and combat system
Early 2022: Project officially initiated
October 29, 2026: Global simultaneous release
Feng Ji, producer of Black MYTH - Steam Edition: Wukong, also published a long post on Weibo, discussing his long-standing friendship with Liang Qiwei, producer of Phantom Blade Zero, and offering congratulations on the game's official launch. Feng Ji recalled their early days meeting as mobile game entrepreneurs. He expressed the view that single-player games are not inherently superior; choosing this path often simply reflects the developers' personal passion for such works. He compared human aesthetics to large language models, suggesting that creators' tastes are shaped by years of experience and feedback.
Two years ago, Black MYTH - Steam Edition: Wukong showcased the phenomenal explosive power of domestic AAA games with cumulative sales exceeding 30 million copies and revenue nearing 10 billion yuan. Two years later, Phantom Blade Zero arrives with higher media scores. In the same genre, under the same global spotlight, will the miracle happen a second time?
Regarding ratings, the authoritative overseas review aggregation website Metacritic has unlocked media scores for Phantom Blade Zero.Against the backdrop of reviews from multiple media outlets,Phantom Blade Zero achieved an average score of 88, surpassing Black MYTH - Steam Edition: Wukong's 81:
Domestic AAA Games Move from "Lone Wolf" to "Matrix"
Looking at Black MYTH - Steam Edition: Wukong and Phantom Blade Zero side by side makes the conclusion clearer. Black MYTH - Steam Edition: Wukong achieved sales of approximately 28 million copies across all platforms in 2024, generating over 9 billion yuan in revenue, with cumulative sales now exceeding 30 million copies. Its significance lies in going "from 0 to 1": proving that domestic buy-to-play single-player games can succeed in the global market.
Phantom Blade Zero is poised to become another major benchmark title in the domestic AAA sector following Black MYTH - Steam Edition: Wukong. The institution stated that besides Phantom Blade Zero, other high-specification domestic AAA products such as Shanghai Aurogon's new Gujian series title, Black MYTH - Steam Edition: Zhong Kui, and NetEase Leihuo's Gui Tang are also progressing steadily.
As the supply density of high-quality domestic titles continues to increase, premium content is expected to further cultivate console users and foster habits of purchasing buy-to-play games, thereby accelerating the expansion of the console game market.
Black MYTH - Steam Edition: Wukong underwent seven years of development with a cost of approximately 400 million yuan, while Phantom Blade Zero took nearly ten years from early conception to release, with a similar investment of around 400 million yuan. This represents a path starkly different from the short-sightedness that characterized the domestic game industry over the past decade. Game publishers are no longer chasing quick profits through short cycles and high turnover; instead, they are committing several years to a single product.
From Game Science's seven-year perseverance to Lingyoufang's "twenty-year journey in the Jianghu," and followed by AAA releases from Shanghai Aurogon and NetEase Leihuo, the industry's keywords are shifting from "traffic" and "monetization" to "accumulation" and "polishing."
Meanwhile, "slow work" is no longer synonymous with "thin margins." Black MYTH - Steam Edition: Wukong has proven, with cumulative sales exceeding 30 million copies and revenue nearing 10 billion yuan, that buy-to-play AAA games with long development cycles and heavy investments can also yield substantial returns.
When "slowing down" proves capable of generating "slow money," long-cycle investments begin to have stable expectations, giving domestic AAA games the confidence to move towards a "healthy ecosystem." In this sense, the release of Phantom Blade Zero is not just the entry of another product, but the fulfillment of the industry's patience.