Anyone living under a rock for the past week might have missed the release of the highly-regarded Black Myth: Wukong – Game Science’s monkey epic based on Journey to the West. If that’s the case, you can correct course and pick up the game, which released on 20 August. Unless you own an Xbox, of course.
That’s right, the next-best Souls-like has yet to arrive on the Xbox Store or see any physical versions printed under the Xbox banner. That won’t be the case forever. Game Science reckons the game will eventually hit Microsoft’s Series S/X consoles. When that’ll be, however, we remain woefully ignorant.
Silence, Xbox players
According to a Game Science FAQ, the developers are currently “optimizing the Xbox Series X|S version to meet [their] quality standards, so it won’t release simultaneously with the other platforms.” It’s a similar situation to that of Baldur’s Gate 3’s rocky release, which eventually found life on the Xbox three months after its initial release.
We reckon the delay might have something to do with developing Black Myth: Wukong for the severely underpowered Series S and Game Science’s lack of care for it. If you’ve seen any footage of the Unreal Engine 5 title that’s currently storming the Steam charts, you’ll understand why there might be issues behind the scenes.
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Microsoft reckons something else might be holding up the release. The company responded to the delay (via WindowsCentral), hinting that Game Science has exclusivity deals in play and that optimisation has nothing to do with it.
“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.”
We guess we’ll never know. Game Science’s closing statement regarding the delay offers no hints as to when Xbox players can dive into the world of Black Myth: Wukong. “We will announce the release date as soon as it meets our quality standards,” it said.