Yocar, using his pseudonym, sent out a message following the performance of Black Myth : Wukong at the 2024 Steam Awards, a popular vote which saw it win the awards for “Game of the Year”, “Best Game You're a Zero At”, and “Exceptionally Story-Rich Game”.
Its few lines are translated as follows by ChatGPT:
« Although it's not really a surprise, I still feel a certain emotion after getting everything. The power of everyone is truly frightening. All that's missing is the Xbox's “monk's robe”… It seems a bit of a shame (but this 10 GB shared memory, without a few years of experience in optimization, is really difficult to master). »
We therefore easily understand that it is the optimization on Xbox Series S which has continued to pose problems for the Game Science teams for many months. Feng Ji's message seems to show humility by questioning his team's lack of experience in optimization, Wukong being not only the first AAA game but also the studio's first console game. Game Science, however, is not the first developer to have stumbled over the console's lack of RAM, a subject that is still debated years after the generation kicked off. In 2023, Larian Studios also had to postpone the Xbox Series version of Baldur's Gate 3 for a few months, ultimately having to abandon the split-screen game mode which was not satisfactory on Xbox Series S.
Remember that Game Science had already explained the delay of the Xbox Series version of Black Myth : Wukong in these terms, at the beginning of June 2024: “ We are currently optimizing the Xbox Series X|S version to meet our quality criteria, so it will not release simultaneously with other platforms. We apologize for the delay and are working to minimize the wait for Xbox users. We will announce the release date as soon as we have reached our quality criteria. »
Following this official declaration, eminent bloggers subsequently claimed that the real reason for the postponement of Wukong was part of an exclusivity agreement with PlayStation. A suspect theory given that this type of partnership is generally not secret and that Sony Interactive Entertainment has not put forward Wukong in any way, but a theory fueled by Microsoft itself, which played on the ambiguity of the situation by declaring, via a spokesperson: “ We can't comment on any deals our partners have with other platform owners, but we remain focused on making Xbox the best platform for gamers, and great games are at the heart of that goal. »
- Also read | Notre test de Black Myth : Wukong
