Phantom Blade Zer0 has sold more than four million copies in its first three days on the market, marking a success for developer and publisher S-Game.
It’s a big win for S-Game, an independent Chinese studio founded in 2011 by Liang Qiwei, and it’s another example of how Chinese game companies are making a splash on the global gaming market with Chinese game content.
The game is a wuixia-inspired action RPG with blazing fast martial arts combat, with dark fantasy, steampunk and cyberpunk elements. Its creators call it KungfuPunk, combining Chinese martial arts and a stylized fantasy world. It features an assassin named Soul, who is framed for murder and must unravel a conspiracy to save himself.
S-Game previously created Rainblood and Phantom Blade titles, which are set in the same universe as Phantom Blade Zer0. The title has been in the public eye since console and PC ambitions surfaced in 2021, not counting pre-production time of four to five years. The work began with the Unreal Engine 5 in 2022, and it was unveiled during the May 2023 PlayStation showcase. The ideas behind the game trade back as far as 2008.
The title has influences like Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry and Sekiro, as well as Hong Kong kung fu films. And it’s akin to Black Myth: Wukong, whose success generated worldwide interest in Chinese-made games.