After teasing a big announcement, the AAA open-world MMORPG from Tencent’s Lightspeed Studios has been revealed. “Code: To Jin Yong (as indicated on the official site)” will adapt the wuxia novels of bestselling Chinese author Jin Yong, and will be built in Unreal Engine 5. No platforms were revealed.
The official game description from the site (as translated via Google Translate) says:
"Code: To Jin Yong was developed by Tencent Photonics Studio group using Unreal Engine 5, adapted from Mr. Jin Yong’s series of martial arts novels, authorized by Minghe Society and invites you to experience the free and grand martial arts of Jin Yong."
Jin Yong’s novels focus on wuxia, and the full trailer (following last week’s brief teaser) shows off some of the gameplay and acrobatic movement we can expect from the game. Jin Yong’s novels are best sellers and have veen translated into various other languages, so there is already some audience in the world familiar with the source material. While many Westerners might think of wuxia from movies, there is something to be considered from making a big, open world full scale MMORPG with this as the basis.
Given the legacy of the novels, it seems like there will be plenty of story potential as well. Though not much is known yet about the game, and there are few details in English. Yet this is the first big MMORPG from Lightspeed Studios, which has successfully developed PUBG Mobile and Apex Legends Mobile, among other titles and claims hundreds of millions of active monthly users across games in its portfolio.
Given that Tencent is one of the world’s biggest gaming companies, pushing a big AAA open-world MMORPG with the budget this looks to have and graphics might cement wuxia in the games world more broadly too.
You can visit the official site for To Jin Yong for more info as it comes out.
