When the Chinese studio Game Science announced the delay of the Xbox version of its action role-playing game Black Myth: Wukong, it motivated this by optimization problems, but the situation turned out to be not so clear-cut.
Image Source: Push Square
Black Myth: Wukong was released on August 20 on PC and PS5, while the game is not available on Xbox Series X and S. Insider eXtas1s claimed that due to a memory leak bug, the project failed certification on Xbox, which is why it was postponed indefinitely.
Following the revelations of eXtas1s, the Forbes and IGN portals, citing their sources, reported that Black Myth: Wukong for Xbox was delayed not because of technical problems, but because of a behind-the-scenes deal between the developers and Sony.
Image source: Screen Rant
The publications noted contradictory statements from the developers of Black Myth: Wukong and Microsoft representatives about the delay of the game for Xbox Series X and S:
- Game Science said in a June 8 post that it continues to work on optimizing the Xbox Series X and S versions to achieve a quality standard;
- Microsoft, in an official statement dated June 21, clarified that it “cannot comment on transactions between its partners and other platform holders.”
It is noteworthy that Sony did not boast about the exclusive status of Black Myth: Wukong, as it did, for example, with Final Fantasy XVI and Deathloop, and did not really advertise the game in the West (only in Asia). Ordinary users also noticed this.
Image source: Steam (LVVrunner)
In addition, several insiders immediately issued a refutation of the information from IGN and Forbes. Among them are Giant Bomb journalist Jeff Grubb, XboxEra podcast co-host Nick Baker, Lunatic Ignus and eXtas1s.
Sales of Black Myth: Wukong on PC (Steam, EGS, WePlay) and PS5 reached 10 million copies within three days of release. The game also holds the second place in Steam history for peak online users – 2.4 million concurrent users.