The Rise and Fall of Tencent's Battle Gods (斗战神)

In 2010, Chinese tech giant Tencent released Battle Gods (斗战神), a highly anticipated MMORPG that aimed to bring AAA-level production values and gameplay to the Chinese market. The game was helmed by a talented team including Feng Xiao, who would later go on to found the game studio Game Science and create the critically acclaimed Black Myth: Wukong.

Battle Gods was an ambitious project from the start. It retold the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West from a darker perspective, with high-quality graphics and innovative gameplay mechanics that were rare for a Chinese-developed MMO at the time. Upon release, the game was an instant hit, garnering a huge player base and critical praise.

However, despite its early success, Battle Gods began to falter due to a variety of factors. Commercially, the game struggled to monetize effectively, with Tencent unable to find the right balance between generating revenue and keeping players engaged. On the production side, the team found it increasingly difficult to churn out new content at the pace necessary to satiate player demand. This was exacerbated by challenges in responding to and implementing user feedback.

As these issues compounded, Battle Gods began to lose its player base to competitors. What had started as a groundbreaking title slowly faded into obscurity. The game’s ultimate failure was a painful lesson for Tencent and the Battle Gods team.

For Feng Xiao and six of his colleagues who had worked on Battle Gods, the game’s decline only strengthened their resolve to “do a Westward Journey” of their own. In 2014, the seven co-founders left Tencent to start Game Science, with the explicit mission of creating the game that Battle Gods had aspired to be.

“Battle Gods didn’t achieve perfection. Dropping it and starting something new felt like it wouldn’t do justice for anyone. Switching to another project, there was no confidence it would definitely succeed. First finishing something we had built up – that would be seeing things through,” said Yang Qi, one of the co-founders.

This commitment to realizing the unfulfilled potential they saw in Battle Gods directly led to the development of Game Science’s Black Myth: Wukong, a single-player action RPG based on Journey to the West. In many ways, Black Myth is a spiritual successor to Battle Gods, building on many of the same themes and ideas but in a format more conducive to the team’s creative vision.

While Battle Gods may have faded, its legacy lives on through the work of its creators. The rise and fall of the game showcases both the immense potential and challenges facing Chinese game developers seeking to create world-class titles. As Feng Xiao and Game Science continue their journey with Black Myth: Wukong, the lessons learned from Battle Gods will undoubtedly shape their path forward.