《经济学人》报道“黑神话：悟空”： “Black Myth: Wukong” is China’s first blockbuster video game

“Black Myth: Wukong” is China’s first blockbuster video game

Will there be more?

本文是2024年8月31日期The Economist的文章阅读笔记。

blockbuster：美 [ˈblɑːkbʌstər] 大轰动；一鸣惊人的事物；畅销书；热门大片；非常成功的作品

原文：

YOU ARE thrust into the heat of battle—a clash so violent it has “disturbed

heaven and Earth” and “alarmed both demons and gods”. Playing as Sun

Wukong, aka the Monkey King, you wield the jin gu bang (a fabled staff

weighing eight tonnes) and face down Erlang, a three-eyed warrior-god. You

must be wily, not to mention nimble: Erlang’s axe can cleave entire

mountains in two. (And you thought your day job was stressful.)

你被推入了战斗的白热化阶段——这场冲突如此激烈，以至于“扰乱了天地”，“惊动了妖魔鬼怪”。扮演孙悟空，又名猴王，你挥舞着金箍棒(一根传说中重达8吨的棍子)，面对三只眼武神二郎。你必须老谋深算，更不用说敏捷了:二郎的斧头可以把整座山劈成两半。(你认为你的日常工作压力很大。)

学习：

thrust：冲；刺；塞；戳；挤；

thrust into：强行闯入；投身…之中

clash：冲突；矛盾；冲突事件

heaven and Earth：天地

wield：挥舞；挥；

fabled：传说中的；虚构的；

staff：长杆；长棍，棍子

tonne：美 [tən] [计量]公吨（等于1000千克）

warrior-god：战神

wily：美 [ˈwaɪli] 机智的；老谋深算的

nimble：敏捷的；灵活的；机敏的；

cleave：英 [kliːv] 劈开；砍开

原文：

“Journey to the West” has been adapted many times: it is the most famous

novel in Chinese literature and among the country’s most successful cultural

exports. But “Black Myth: Wukong”, released on August 20th, is special.

The video game is the first blockbuster release from a Chinese studio. In

industry lingo, “Black Myth” is a “AAA” game—a label that denotes big

budgets and high production values.

《西游记》被多次改编:它是中国文学中最著名的小说，也是中国最成功的文化输出之一。但是8月20日上映的《黑神话:悟空》比较特别。这款游戏是中国公司发行的第一部大作。在行业行话中，“黑神话”是一个“AAA”游戏——一个表示大预算和高生产价值的标签。

学习：

Journey to the West：西游记

adapt：改编

Chinese literature：中国文学

cultural exports：文化输出

lingo：美 [ˈlɪŋɡoʊ] 行话；术语；

原文：

China is a country of gamers. By 2027 there will be more than 700m players

there, and the market will be worth $57bn—up from $45.5bn in 2022—

according to Niko Partners, a market-research firm. Many Chinese have

bemoaned their country’s inability to produce a video game as thrilling as

“Grand Theft Auto” or “World of Warcraft” (which originated in Scotland

and America respectively). They are hoping “Black Myth” marks the arrival

of a new player in the AAA arena.

中国是一个游戏玩家的国度。根据市场研究公司Niko Partners的数据，到2027年将有超过7亿玩家，市场价值将从2022年的455亿美元上升到570亿美元。许多中国人哀叹他们的国家无法制作出像《侠盗猎车手》或《魔兽世界》(分别起源于苏格兰和美洲)这样惊心动魄的电子游戏。他们希望“黑神话”标志着一个新的作品在AAA竞技场的到来。

学习：

bemoaned：美 [bɪ’moʊnd] 悲悼；哀叹；（bemoan的过去式和过去分词）

arena：美 [əˈriːnə] 竞技场

原文：

Why has China been so late to log on? One reason is that the country has

been focused on winning the mobile game war. China made four of the ten

highest-grossing mobile games of 2023, including the top entry, “Honour of

Kings”. Mobile games “monetise much faster”, explains one game producer

in China, which counts against designers who want to spend time and money

on something more expansive.

为什么中国这么晚才登陆（AAA领域）？一个原因是这个国家一直专注于赢得手机游戏战争。2023年票房最高的十款手机游戏中，中国占了四款，其中包括排名第一的《王者荣耀》。中国的一位游戏制作人解释说，手机游戏“赚钱更快”，这不利于那些想把时间和金钱花在规模更宏大的东西上的设计师。

学习：

highest-grossing：票房最高的，收入最高的

Honour of Kings：王者荣耀

expansive: 规模更大、范围更广、内容更加丰富的东西

这里的 “expansive” 是指规模更大、范围更广、内容更加丰富的东西。在这个上下文中，“something more expansive” 是指那些需要更多时间和金钱投入的、更复杂、更全面的游戏设计，而不仅仅是专注于能够快速盈利的手机游戏。

例句：

• The studio decided to focus on creating an expansive open-world game that would allow players to explore vast landscapes and engage in intricate storylines.
  （这家工作室决定专注于制作一个规模宏大的开放世界游戏，让玩家可以探索广阔的景观并参与复杂的故事情节。）

原文：

Nor did it help that gamers did not have the right hardware. From 2000 to

2014 China banned imports of PlayStations and Xboxes, citing concerns for

youngsters’ mental health. After the ban was lifted, Chinese studios lacked

the expertise to make games for those consoles; it has taken a long time to

catch up. China’s game technology is “backwards”, says a developer at a

major Chinese gaming firm. “Black Myth” was made with a 3D graphics

creation tool called Unreal Engine from an American company, Epic Games.

游戏玩家没有合适的硬件也于事无补。从2000年到2014年，中国禁止进口PlayStations和Xboxes，理由是担心青少年的心理健康。禁令解除后，中国工作室缺乏为这些游戏机制作游戏的专业知识；花了很长时间才赶上。中国一家大型游戏公司的开发人员表示，中国的游戏技术“落后”。《黑神话》是用美国Epic Games公司的一款名为虚幻引擎的3D图形创作工具制作的。

学习：

ban was lifted：禁令解除

原文：

Perhaps the biggest reason for the lag is that Chinese gamers are not in the

habit of paying to play. Copyright protection is often scant and software

piracy rampant. That has made making elaborate games financially unviable.

China is richer now, but with the rise of mobile games—which are typically

free-to-play and make their money from selling in-game benefits—the habit

has stuck. Some Chinese netizens were nonplussed when the pricing for

“Black Myth” was announced at 268 yuan ($38)

或许这种滞后的最大原因是中国游戏玩家没有付费玩游戏的习惯。版权保护不足，软件盗版猖獗。这使得制作精致的游戏在经济上不可行。中国现在更富裕了，但随着手机游戏的兴起——这些游戏通常是免费的，并通过出售游戏内的好处来赚钱——这种习惯已经根深蒂固。当“黑神话”的定价宣布为268元(38美元)时，一些中国网民不知所措

学习：

scant：不足的；缺乏的

piracy：美 [ˈpaɪrəsi] 盗版行为；非法复制；侵犯版权

netizen：网民

nonplussed：困惑的；不知所措的；惊讶的

原文：

GameScience, the maker of “Black Myth”, based in Hangzhou, is hoping to

reboot that attitude. Feng Ji, its boss, abides by the motto “Move oneself

first, then find alignment with the market.” GameScience studied the best

titles and historical material to create a game world that would feel true to

“Journey to the West”.

总部位于杭州的“黑神话”的制造商GameScience希望重新树立这种态度。其老板季风恪守“先移动自己，然后与市场接轨”的座右铭。GameScience研究了最好的标题和历史资料，以创建一个感觉真实的“西游记”游戏世界。

学习：

true to：忠实；忠实于

原文：

The process took six years, but the determination has paid off. In the day

after its launch, “Black Myth” enjoyed 2.2m concurrent players on Steam, a

gaming platform—the second-highest figure of any game on record. Most of

those players were from China, but it has proved popular abroad, too. In the

week after its release, it has been the top-selling game on Steam in America,

Germany and Japan. “Black Myth” has earned positive reviews on the

platform from 96% of Chinese players and 93% of English-speaking ones.

这个过程花了六年时间，但决心得到了回报。在发布后的第二天，《黑神话》在游戏平台Steam上拥有220万同时在线玩家，这是有记录以来第二高的数字。大多数玩家来自中国，但事实证明它在国外也很受欢迎。在发布后的一周内，它已经成为美国、德国和日本Steam上最畅销的游戏。《黑神话》在平台上赢得了96%的中国玩家和93%的英语玩家的好评。

学习：

concurrent：同时发生的；同时的

concurrent players：同时在线的玩家

原文：

With “Black Myth” the Monkey King has reaffirmed his reign over Chinese

content. The game has already been promoted as a source of nationalist

pride. Xinhua, an official news service, says “Black Myth” has succeeded in

“telling China’s story with world-class quality”. A spokesperson for China’s

foreign ministry, delighted at a positive news story about China, has argued

the game’s approval overseas “reflects the appeal of Chinese culture”.

凭借《黑神话》，孙悟空再次确立了他在中国内容上的统治地位。这款游戏已经被提升为民族自豪感的来源。官方新闻机构新华社表示，《黑色神话》成功地“以世界级的质量讲述了中国故事”。中国外交部的一名发言人对一条关于中国的正面新闻感到高兴，他认为这款游戏在海外获得批准“反映了中国文化的吸引力”。

学习：

reign： 美 [reɪn] （尤指君主）统治；在位；盛行；（在某领域）占主导地位

nationalist pride：民族自豪感

spokesperson：代言人；发言人

原文：

Some analysts believe that China’s gaming industry will not give up its

preference for mobile even if “Black Myth” becomes the stuff of legend. But

others are more optimistic. The game’s success proves the viability of

blockbuster games in China, they say, and encourages other developers to

think big. GameScience has accrued the experience to make subsequent

projects easier. Mr Feng asserts that “There will be more Chinese games that

can vie with those overseas.” That will come as good news to those who like

to monkey around on gaming consoles. ■

一些分析师认为，即使“黑神话”成为传奇，中国的游戏行业也不会放弃对手机游戏的偏好。但其他人更乐观。他们说，这款游戏的成功证明了大片游戏（3A游戏）在中国的可行性，并鼓励其他开发商大胆设想。GameScience积累了经验，使后续项目更容易。Mr Feng断言，“将会有更多的中国游戏可以与海外游戏竞争。”对于那些喜欢在游戏机上瞎折腾的人来说，这将是个好消息。■

学习：

viability：可行性

accrued：获得；（accrue的过去分词）

accrue the experience：获得经验

vie： 美 [vaɪ] 竞争；争夺；较量；角逐；

monkey：无目的地摆弄；

后记

2024年8月30日15点03分于上海。