China Goes Ape Over Culture-Boosting ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ Video Game 

A young man plays Chinese action role-playing game "Black Myth: Wukong", developed by Chinese video game company Game Science, during its launch day in Shanghai on August 20, 2024. (AFP) 
A young man plays Chinese action role-playing game "Black Myth: Wukong", developed by Chinese video game company Game Science, during its launch day in Shanghai on August 20, 2024. (AFP) 
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China Goes Ape Over Culture-Boosting ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ Video Game 

A young man plays Chinese action role-playing game "Black Myth: Wukong", developed by Chinese video game company Game Science, during its launch day in Shanghai on August 20, 2024. (AFP) 
A young man plays Chinese action role-playing game "Black Myth: Wukong", developed by Chinese video game company Game Science, during its launch day in Shanghai on August 20, 2024. (AFP) 

Chinese state media threw its back behind China's most successful single-player video game to date, saying its adaptation of the Ming dynasty epic "Journey to the West" would force Western players to learn more about the country's culture.

"Black Myth: Wukong", based on a mythological monkey king from a Chinese literary classic who can shape-shift into humans, animals and inanimate objects, was being played by 2.2 million concurrent players on Steam, a major online gaming platform, on Wednesday, a day after its release.

"Chinese players in the past have gone through this process of cross-cultural understanding, now it is the turn of overseas players to learn... and understand Chinese traditional culture," China Central Television wrote in a blog.

Drawing heavily on the story of the beloved magical monkey, Sun Wukong, who acquires supernatural powers by practicing Taoism, "Black Myth: Wukong" can only be enjoyed if players are familiar with the plot of the 16th century classic, the national broadcaster said.

The game was launched on Tuesday by Game Science, a Tencent-backed startup to much fanfare on Chinese social media. Hashtags on the video game accumulated 1.7 billion views on China's X-like microblog Weibo.

"This release marks a bold foray by Chinese game developers into a market long dominated by Western triple-A titles," state news agency Xinhua wrote in an editorial on Wednesday.

"With this breakthrough, the default language of a triple-A game is no longer English, but Chinese," it added.

"Black Myth: Wukong" would "attract more global players to pay attention to domestic games", said analysts at Shanghai-based Topsperity Securities, adding that companies across a wide range of sectors could expect to profit off intellectual property tie-ins.

Ride-hailing firm Didi, Lenovo Group and Luckin Coffee are incorporating elements inspired by "Black Myth: Wukong" into their promotional campaigns.

Be that as it may, gaming stocks were unchanged on Wednesday, with concept stocks linked to the game's development down after having risen considerably over the past month.

"Black Myth: Wukong" was widely lauded as China's first AAA game - high development costs, long production cycles and immense investment. But unlike other Chinese games that are played on mobile devices and involve endless micro-payments, the game is a one-time purchase with a price tag of 268 yuan ($37.58) for the standard version and 328 yuan for the premium.

Pre-sales, which began in June, had reached 400 million yuan as of Tuesday when the game was launched, according to Citi.

"It is unclear whether "Black Myth: Wukong's" business model can bring more profits... the important thing... is that China is finally getting its own AAA game that can excite the world," state-owned tabloid Global Times cited an industry insider as saying.

"Global players will be able to get a deeper understanding of traditional Chinese culture while having fun," Global Times declared.



Taiwan’s TSMC Building $10 Billion Semiconductor Plant in Germany

Minister-President of the Saxony state Michael Kretschmer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, C.C. Wei, Chairman and CEO of TSMC and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend a groundbreaking ceremony for Taiwanese chip maker TSMC's first European plant in the eastern city of Dresden, Germany, August 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Minister-President of the Saxony state Michael Kretschmer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, C.C. Wei, Chairman and CEO of TSMC and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend a groundbreaking ceremony for Taiwanese chip maker TSMC's first European plant in the eastern city of Dresden, Germany, August 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Taiwan’s TSMC Building $10 Billion Semiconductor Plant in Germany

Minister-President of the Saxony state Michael Kretschmer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, C.C. Wei, Chairman and CEO of TSMC and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend a groundbreaking ceremony for Taiwanese chip maker TSMC's first European plant in the eastern city of Dresden, Germany, August 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Minister-President of the Saxony state Michael Kretschmer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, C.C. Wei, Chairman and CEO of TSMC and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend a groundbreaking ceremony for Taiwanese chip maker TSMC's first European plant in the eastern city of Dresden, Germany, August 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) broke ground in eastern Germany on its first European plant as the continent seeks to safeguard its chip supplies amid growing US-China tensions.

“We are dependent on semiconductors for our sustainable future technologies, but we must not be dependent on other regions of the world for the supply of semiconductors,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who attended a ceremony on Tuesday to mark the start of construction of the 10 billion euros ($11 billion) manufacturing plant in the city of Dresden. About half of the funding will be covered by state subsidies.

Germany is leading the European Union push to produce one-fifth of the world's semiconductors by 2030, with the bloc seeking to build up capacity following Covid-era disruptions and as US-China ties deteriorate.

The US, Japan and others are also showering subsidies on the chip industry to localize production of the components that control everything from cutting-edge artificial intelligence to daily gadgets.

TSMC is the world's biggest contract chipmaker, with Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp relying on it for their most important products. It will anchor the Dresden project with a 70% stake in the plant, which will produce chips for the automotive and industrial sectors.

TSMC CEO C.C. Wei attended the event together with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the heads of Infineon Technologies AG, NXP Semiconductors NV and Robert Bosch GmbH, which each hold a 10% stake in the venture.

Scholz has emerged as Europe's biggest backer of the semiconductor industry as he seeks to promote Germany's tech sector and secure supplies of critical components for the country's manufacturing businesses.

His government plans to spend 20 billion euros to bolster domestic chip production. That includes the TSMC plant and 10 billion euros in aid for a planned Intel Corp plant in Magdeburg.

The EU approved Germany's 5 billion euros subsidy for the Dresden microchip manufacturing plant, von der Leyen said at the event.

The new site will help Europe reduce its reliance on Asia for importing vital technology and comes after German carmakers expressed interest in boosting domestic chip production. Production is slated to begin by the end of 2027.