Not every game can be Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto, and for good reason. I'm pretty sure the Earth's core would crack under the weight of multiple mega-releases like GTA 6. But if those games represent the glorious peak of AAA gaming, Phantom Blade Zero director Qiwai "Soulframe" Liang says developers in his native China at least want to start climbing.
"All the focus [in China] is on making AAA games," S-GAME studio founder Liang tells PC Gamer in the newest print edition of its magazine. "You can see a lot are coming. It's different."
"For Americans," Liang continues, gleaming AAA titles are "not a new concept, because you guys are making huge games. GTA or something like that is quite familiar." He suggests that China's current equivalent to a game as imposing as GTA is the 2024, mythological action RPG Black Myth: Wukong – which apparently earned back its $43 million budget in mere weeks.
"I think there's a pride for the gamers who played Black Myth," Liang says, "because they feel: we can make such a game. So we are careful as Chinese developers to fulfil the requirements, they hype the Chinese gamers. We have to make the games ever better."
Though Liang – whose wuxia ARPG Phantom Blade Zero has been in development for about three years now, and does not yet have a release date – seems to think it'll take time before these games can compete with big international budgets.
"I would say for most, the quality is still your basement, your foundation," he says. This is why, again, "Making the games better is very important."
