Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is the latest AAA Chinese game to release globally, and it broke street date 3 days ahead of time, in China.
Many online sellers in the country had the game in stock and ready to sell and ship out on July 21st, 3 days ahead of the July 24th official worldwide release.
It’s important to understand that this is not an exceptional thing to happen with physical games in China. In fact, I’m writing this post, if anything, to highlight how common it is, and hopefully to dispel yet another misconception that many people have about gaming in China: no, Chinese gamers don’t need to wait longer than the rest of the world to have access to games! As it happens actually, consumers in China can usually get their hands on physical games before most other people in other markets.
Since most PC and console games in China are unlicensed "grey market" imports, sellers are not concerned with release and distribution schedules. That’s the short answer.
Within this context of “grey market”, publishers have absolutely no power at all over these sellers, as they operate independently from any centralized distributor that answers to the game’s publishers and corporate overlords.
For more context on console gaming market dynamics in China, please check some of my previous articles on the subject. I write my content here from the assumption that readers will be somewhat familiar with the Chinese market, but if you’re not, check this previous post, or this older article I wrote for Gamesindustry.biz, or even this more recent one.
While Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a Chinese game made by a Chinese studio in China (Leenzee Games, in Chengdu), it does not have a publishing license for the country.
That means that, officially, the game is not to be launched in Mainland China.
But yes, the game is fully localized in Chinese of course.
If you’re wondering why the game does not have an approved publishing license for China, the answer is simple: its content.
Just like so many other major console games from around the world, Wuchang is a title aimed at mature audiences. It’s a souls-like action game with its fair share of ultra-violence, gore, body-horror, sexy characters and themes that Chinese authorities generally censor. Regardless of being a Chinese game, the rules apply to it just as they do to most other non-Chinese games, and therefore it would have very little chances of getting a license even if the studio tried to apply for one.
A parallel could be made here with some Chinese movies that are not “allowed” in China, but go on to play in theaters around the world and even win awards at international film festivals…
This, of course, is not an actual barrier for the game to be widely and easily available to any gamers who wants it in China, both physically or digitally, in any available platform.
As I explained in many of my previous articles, all games are readily available to gamers through digital stores from different regions on consoles (not blocked using a conventional internet provider in China), international Steam, and in the case of physical copies through online sellers that stock games imported from neighboring markets - mostly Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan, but not only (Hong Kong is technically a different market from Mainland China, with its own laws and regulations for products such as videogames).
To answer the initial question as to how can games be available in China before their release date: because sellers throughout the country have them on time and dont need to answer to anyone else in order to sell them. It’s that simple.
The game already is successful.
As I have reported before, Leenzee Games already secured funding for its next project thanks to its distribution deal with Game Pass on Xbox to launch Wuchang on Microsoft’s service.
I’m not aware of current ongoing internal operations, but at the time I reported on the next game from the studio being greenlit already, the studio had a comfortable runway to continue operations. Needless to say however, that internal finances of a company, and decisions that impact said finances, are often volatile and subject to changes…
Besides the Game Pass money, at the time of this writing it is publicly reported through Alinea Analytics (follow The Alinea Insight newsletter) that Wuchang launched as the No.1 game on Steam in China, No.1 pre-orders on Steam globally, with pre-sold copies nearing 200k units. Plus, PS5 pre-sales in China are substantial, according to the same source.
I can't speak for the publisher's or the studio internal expectations, but I think it's very fair to predict this will not be a "Black Myth Wukong" kind of phenomenon, in China or elsewhere. Sales will be relatively modest during its wider launch window, I predict.
While the game is launching as the number 1 game on Steam and tracking well on PlayStation 5, we shouldn’t assume that’s enough to guarantee an extraordinarily big launch, sales-wise. Especially long term.
I have no doubt Wuchang will find its audience, and like many games nowadays, it should have a somewhat consistent long-tail. However, I would be (positively) surprised if it manages to sell more than 1 million units in its first month (not to be confused with the number of players. Accounting for Game Pass, it is very predictable the game will quickly reach more than 1 million players - as publishers nowadays so much like to boast using that particular metric…).
I suppose for the studio, 1 million units in its first month or two would be an excellent result. Considering the mixed-to-good reviews Wuchang got from critics, plus the insatiable and ever-present core audience for souls-like games, I see Wuchang selling anywhere between 3 to 5 million copies from launch until the end of 2025.
I would be happy if it sells more however.
For Chinese-speaking markets, Wuchang benefits from the publishing and marketing efforts from Justdan, the publisher of the PS5 version in Taiwan and Hong-Kong.
The Xbox version of the game is handled by Shanghai E-Home Entertainment in the different Chinese-speaking markets, non-including Mainland China.
Globally, the game is published by 505 Games.
In my opinion, Wuchang has been plagued by very poor marketing since first revealed. I’ve been very open with my criticism, in particular towards their Twitter account. I don’t blame it all on 505 Games (being the global publisher), but there’s something to be said about the company’s track record with some of its past major games which, in my opinion, have been grossly mismanaged (Asseto Corsa, Control, and more recently Blades of Fire come to mind).
I won’t dwell into this topic here however, as that would be an entirely different conversation, far from today’s focus, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.
As a final observation, and to end on a more positive note, I do want to highlight the licensing collaborations the game has with some gaming accessory makers.
At the time of the game’s launch, 4 manufacturers have made special edition gamepads/controllers that are available for sale, aimed at PC gamers.
These are from 8BitDo, GameSir, Flydigi, and Beitong. All of them Chinese companies.
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