Two conflicting statements about Black Myth Wukong’s delay on Xbox have now emerged, raising questions about what is actually going on.
Last week, we reported on Game Science’s update on Black Myth Wukong’s release. Their exact wording for the delayed release on Xbox was as follows:
“We are currently optimizing the Xbox Series X|S version to meet our quality standards, so it won’t release simultaneously with the other platforms.”
Jez Corden reached out to both Game Science and Microsoft to corroborate this statement. Game Science did not send a response, but he received this message from Microsoft:
“We’re excited for the launch of Black Myth Wukong on Xbox Series X|S and are working with Game Science to bring the game to our platforms.
We can’t comment on the deals made by our partners with other platform holders, but we remain focused on making Xbox the best platform for gamers, and great games are at the center of that.”
Jez Corden also claims that prior to reaching out to Microsoft, he heard something about this when he was out in LA for the Xbox Games Showcase earlier this month. This time, quoting Jez Corden:
“I became aware of whispers and rumors while out in LA for the Xbox Showcase 2024 that, despite the optimization assertions, Game Science had actually taken some form of exclusivity deal with PlayStation for Black Myth: Wukong.”
It seems that multiple people who were there on the Xbox Games Showcase also received word about this over the grapevine. In the latest Iron Lords podcast, Youtuber Lord King David, who was also at the event, claimed that he talked to Xbox president Sarah Bond. He asked Sarah about Black Myth Wukong’s rumored exclusivity with Sony, and she apparently told him it was ‘business.’
It’s certainly interesting that Microsoft seems willing to let the word out that Sony made a last minute exclusivity deal with Game Science for Black Myth Wukong, even if that deal is only time limited. Of course, as one can expect, the discourse online has focused on Microsoft ‘losing’ another game to Sony, but the entity that stands to lose the most here is actually Game Science.
As we have seen, even exclusives on PlayStation 5, the purported biggest platform among the game consoles, is not a guarantee of financial success, even if you make the most sales for that month or quarter, or if a single title makes more money than any other title in the series.
The truth is, with the high cost of making games, the bar has been raised exceedingly high for games to have made sufficient revenue to be considered profitable, and this is also true for AA and even indie game studios. It’s very visible when Microsoft and Sony made layoffs, but companies like Devolver Digital, supposedly at lower risk because they make smaller scale games, had layoffs too.
The conventional wisdom nowadays would be to make games available on as many platforms as possible, on a simultaneous launch, so that all the interest is maximized at that launch. After news that both Square Enix’s and Koei Tecmo’s PlayStation 5 exclusives sold below expectations, one hopes that Game Science made the right calls for their company.
Black Myth Wukong is launching on August 20, 2024, on PC via Windows, and PlayStation 5.
