Gamelook's Wuthering Waves Advertorial Goes Off the Rails: Comparing Kuro to 4399, Spelling Blunders, and Praising BL Content — Chinese Gaming Media Credibility in Shambles

Chinese gaming media outlet Gamelook published what was supposed to be a deep-dive article on Wuthering Waves (鸣潮), Kuro Games' flagship gacha open-world RPG. In theory, it was standard industry coverage. In practice, eagle-eyed netizens quickly realized this piece had 'PR ghost-written' written all over it — and the cracks were hilarious.

The first major red flag came when the article compared Wuthering Waves' overseas market performance to 4399 — yes, *that* 4399, the Guangzhou-based mobile publisher infamous for churning out low-effort 'gacha-roll server' cash grabs. Sure, 4399 actually had a legit overseas hit last year with their idle game 'Mushroom Hero' (菇勇者传说) topping the Japanese charts, but putting a premium open-world title in the same breath as a casual mobile grinder is the kind of comparison that makes you question the writer's intent. One commenter fired back: 'If the benchmark is Arknights (明日方舟), why didn't they just make a tower defense game?'

Then came the spelling errors — multiple ones, in what's supposed to be a professional outlet's flagship piece. The original poster pointed out these mistakes seemed almost deliberately placed to 'trigger certain associations' among readers. Whether it was incompetence or subtle sabotage, the result was the same: the article's credibility took a nosedive.

The most eyebrow-raising detail was the article's repeated references to overseas players' appreciation for the game's BL (Boys' Love) shipping culture and 'female-oriented fanservice.' For context, this is an extremely sensitive topic in mainland China's gaming community, where any perceived 'pandering' to female audiences or BL content can trigger massive backlash. The OP couldn't help but ask: 'Who exactly is this article targeting? The editor's stance seems... bizarre.' Walking into that minefield while pretending to write neutral analysis was certainly a choice.

To be fair, the article did get some things right. It acknowledged Wuthering Waves' first-week global revenue across all platforms likely hit around 400 million RMB (~$55M USD), a figure consistent with prior industry leaks. This would comfortably put Wuthering Waves' first-month earnings above Tower of Fantasy (幻塔), which explains why Kuro Games felt confident enough to throw a celebration party while largely ignoring the ongoing community backlash — a strategy Chinese netizens call 'playing dead' (装死). The OP also noted this highlights how simply tracking app store chart rankings to estimate revenue has become increasingly unreliable in today's inflated market.

The comment section delivered some absolute bangers. The top reply (楼1) went straight for the jugular: 'Isn't this one of the three outlets everyone knows will shill for anyone who pays enough?' — using the term '星怒' (a derogatory slang for 'paid shill'). 楼4 served classic sarcasm: 'Famous gaming outlet Gamelook published an advertorial for Wuthering Waves today. Netizens were shocked and unanimously asked: Who is Gamelook?'

楼3 and 楼12 posted a compilation of Chinese gaming outlets' 'professional review scores' for Wuthering Waves, featuring gems like 'an unprecedented miracle in the history of video games.' 楼6 lamented that even Youyan She (游研社), once a respected publication, has 'become an outlet anyone can buy,' while 楼19 recalled the infamous incident where Jigouhe (机核) gave The Last of Us Part II similarly absurd praise — suggesting that Chinese gaming media's credibility has been in the gutter for years.

Not everyone was dunking on the article, though. 楼8 pushed back: 'This is supposed to be drama? Wuthering Waves genuinely earned billions in its first week, long-term profitability seems fine, and not reaching Genshin Impact's level is a reasonable assessment. Western communities genuinely do ship BL couples — their cultural norms just aren't as hypersensitive as ours.' 楼11 also defended 4399's overseas success, reminding everyone not to underestimate the 'Guangzhou digital factories' (a nickname for Guangzhou's mobile game publishers) and their absurd money-printing capabilities.

Bottom line: this Gamelook fiasco says less about Wuthering Waves and more about the sorry state of Chinese gaming media as a whole. When readers automatically assume every 'industry analysis piece' is a paid puff piece, these outlets' credibility is already six feet under — they just haven't gotten the memo yet.