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Gamers in China want their own Total War: Three Kingdoms

Chinese gamers lament the country's failure to project its own culture through games

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Three Kingdoms looks like a good way to get immersed in China’s Three Kingdoms period, but careful not to butcher the pronunciations of these beloved characters. (Picture: Creative Assembly)
Josh Ye
This article originally appeared on ABACUS
Chinese gamers appear to be as excited as the rest of the world for the much-anticipated strategy game Total War: Three Kingdoms, pulling in a huge number of pre-orders from China. But they’re also lamenting online their country's inability to project its own culture through homegrown games.
More than a week before its release, the game had already seized the top spot on Steam's best-selling chart in China. In the US, the game has also ascended to the top spot on the same list two days ahead of its release.

Check out Total War: Three Kingdoms on Amazon

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Three Kingdoms looks like a good way to get immersed in China’s Three Kingdoms period, but careful not to butcher the pronunciations of these beloved characters. (Picture: Creative Assembly)
Three Kingdoms looks like a good way to get immersed in China’s Three Kingdoms period, but careful not to butcher the pronunciations of these beloved characters. (Picture: Creative Assembly)

Sales suggest Chinese gamers are excited for the game even as they express envy over how some foreign companies, including UK-based Creative Assembly, have outshone homegrown Chinese companies in parlaying the country’s history into successful PC and console games.

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“Every time I see foreigners take our Three Kingdoms history and turn it into something so marvellous, I feel so envious. Sigh,” one Chinese gamer wrote in a forum.
Indeed, there are no shortage of successful Three-Kingdom-themed games made by foreign companies. Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Dynasty Warriors are two successful Japanese video game franchises. China doesn't have any Three Kingdom games of the same calibre.
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