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Origins: Rainblood (2008)
The roots of Phantom Blade Zero go back to 2008, when Liang Qiwei (known publicly as Soulframe Liang) created Rainblood: Town of Death as a solo project while still a student. He built it in RPG Maker. The game told the story of a martial artist with 64 days to live. That premise should sound familiar.
Rainblood scored 88 on RPGFan and accumulated over 4 million downloads. It was a genuine hit for an RPG Maker game, but it came at a cost. Liang lost his admission to Tsinghua University's graduate program because of the time he spent on the project. He chose the game over one of China's most prestigious academic paths.
Liang is a Yale architecture graduate, and that background shows up in the game's environmental design and spatial thinking. The level design philosophy in Phantom Blade Zero, with its interconnected spaces and attention to architectural form, traces back to his training.
S-GAME Founded (2011)
After an English version of Rainblood released in 2010, Liang formally founded S-GAME in 2011. Early investor Xu Xiaoping contributed RMB 1 million (roughly $140,000 USD). That same year, the studio released Rainblood 2: City of Flame, continuing the series that would eventually become the Phantom Blade universe.
Rainblood Chronicles: Mirage (2013)
In 2013, S-GAME released Rainblood Chronicles: Mirage, a side-scrolling action game built in Unity 3D. It sold over 300,000 copies in three months. Liang has said it "barely broke even." The game was a step toward more action-focused design, moving away from RPG Maker's limitations and into real-time combat. It was also the first time the studio worked in 3D, even if the game itself was presented in a 2D perspective.
Mobile Pivot (2017)
In 2017, S-GAME pivoted to mobile development in partnership with NetEase. Phantom Blade 1 (the first mobile entry) exceeded RMB 40 million in monthly revenue. The team grew from 20 to 70 people. The mobile games were successful enough to fund further development and establish the Phantom Blade brand with a much larger audience than the Rainblood games had reached.
3D Development and Tencent (2018-2022)
In 2018, S-GAME began a 3D console/PC project but paused it. The team was not yet large enough to handle the scope. Development revived in 2021, and around that time Tencent acquired a 25% stake in the company. Tencent's investment gave S-GAME the financial runway to attempt a AAA-scale production.
Full-scale development using Unreal Engine 5 began in 2022. UE5 gave the team access to rendering technology and development tools that would have taken years to build from scratch. The choice of engine was practical: S-GAME needed to ship a visually competitive console game without the luxury of a proprietary engine built over decades.
PlayStation Showcase Reveal (May 2023)
Phantom Blade Zero was revealed to the world on May 24, 2023, at the PlayStation Showcase. The 3.5-minute trailer showed fast-paced melee combat, the Ming dynasty-inspired setting, and Soul as the protagonist. The reaction was intense. A Chinese studio showing a AAA-looking action game at a PlayStation event drew immediate attention from both Western and Asian audiences.
Event Circuit (2024)
Item | Description |
|---|---|
June 2024 | Summer Game Fest - First playable demo available to press and public. |
August 2024 | Gamescom - Playable demo at the Cologne show. Hands-on previews were consistently positive about the combat feel. |
October 2024 | Tokyo Game Show - Additional showings for the Japanese and Asian press markets. |
Each event brought new footage, new playable sections, and more details about the game's systems. Press coverage from people who actually played the demos consistently highlighted how responsive the combat felt.
2025 Showings
Item | Description |
|---|---|
January 2025 | Year of the Snake trailer released. |
July 2025 | S-PARTY 2025 - S-GAME's own event featured a 1-hour playable demo and a 22-minute gameplay video. This was the most substantial look at the game to date. |
August 2025 | Gamescom 2025 - S-GAME had a 500-square-meter booth zone with a 90-minute playable demo, one of the largest demos any game had offered at the show. |
Release Date Reveal: The Game Awards 2025
On December 11, 2025, at The Game Awards, S-GAME announced the release date: September 9, 2026. The game launches on PS5 and PC (Steam and Epic Games Store). PS5 has a 12-month console exclusivity window, meaning Xbox or other console versions would not arrive until September 2027 at the earliest. S-GAME has not officially confirmed those platforms.
Studio Structure
S-GAME currently has approximately 140 people across four cities: about 100 in Beijing, 20 in Shanghai, 16 in Hong Kong, and a team in Los Angeles. The Shanghai office is where the 20+ kung fu masters work on martial arts choreography and motion capture. The multi-city structure reflects the studio's growth from Liang's solo RPG Maker project to a genuinely international development effort.
Technical Details
Item | Description |
|---|---|
Engine | Unreal Engine 5 |
DLSS 4 | Confirmed support for NVIDIA's DLSS 4 upscaling technology on PC |
PS5 console exclusive | 12-month exclusivity period |
PC storefronts | Steam and Epic Games Store |
From 64 Days to 66 Days
There is a direct line from Rainblood's 2008 premise (martial artist with 64 days to live) to Phantom Blade Zero's premise (assassin with 66 days to live). The number changed, but the concept remained. Phantom Blade Zero is the spiritual rebirth of the idea Liang had as a student, now realized with a full studio, AAA technology, and nearly two decades of iteration. The game is also a direct sequel to Phantom Blade: Executioners, connecting the mobile and console entries into a single narrative continuity. See the story and lore article for details on that connection.