Confusion over Black Myth: Wukong’s missing Xbox release follows claims of PlayStation exclusivity

Rumours of a PlayStation exclusivity deal for Black Myth: Wukong have arisen, causing confusion around its forthcoming Xbox release.

Black Myth: Wukong released earlier this month across PC and PlayStation 5, with an Xbox version still awaiting a launch date. Back in June, developer Game Science stated it was “optimising” the Xbox Series X/S version of the game “to meet our quality standards”.

As such, Black Myth: Wukong was not released on Xbox simultaneously with PC and PlayStation. “We apologise for the delay and aim to minimise the wait for Xbox users. We will announce the release date as soon as it meets our quality standards,” Game Science said at that time.

Reports have since circulated the reason for this ongoing delay is due to technical issues with Black Myth: Wukong’s Xbox version.

Earlier this week, leaker eXtas1s claimed to have spoken to Xbox developers during Gamescom, and reported the game is “suffering from a bug known as ‘memory leak’, which can cause significant crashes that could compromise the performance” of Xbox consoles. As a result, eXtas1s said Black Myth: Wukong “has not passed Xbox’s bug detection tests and has therefore been indefinitely delayed until they manage to optimise the game for Series X/S”.

However, following word of technical issues with the Xbox version, other sources have said the reason for the delay is actually due to an undisclosed exclusivity deal made between the Black Myth: Wukong developer and PlayStation.

The exclusivity deal has been corroborated by Forbes and IGN sources, though the exact terms of this alleged deal remain unknown. Previous claims of tech issues causing a delay to the Xbox release are “inaccurate”, IGN was told.

The exclusivity agreement was subsequently disputed by journalist Jeff Grubb. Speaking as part of Giant Bomb’s Game Mess Decides podcast, Grubb said “Sony has no money marketing deal to keep [Black Myth: Wukong] off of Xbox” consoles, as per his sources.

“Now, is there some other thing that’s happened here, where Sony showed up and said ‘hey, here’s some help to get this game on PlayStation’, and maybe there was an exchange of value on that side of things? I guess that’s possible,” Grubb said. “Or maybe it’s more simple than that… and it’s like, well, you put the game on PlayStation if you are Game Science because there are more PlayStations in China than Xboxes.” Grubb noted the majority of the game’s sales and player base is from China. “Maybe Xbox doesn’t even occur to [Game Science] on first blush.”

While Grubb stated he was speculating on whether Sony did give Game Science a hand with Black Myth: Wukong’s release, as “far as [he] could tell” and from what his sources have told him, “there is no exclusivity deal” in place.

XboxEra’s Nick “Shpeshal Nick” Baker also believes this to be the case. Resharing Paul Tassi’s post regarding Black Myth: Wukong’s alleged exclusivity deal, Baker wrote: “I heard there was a misunderstanding around this stuff. I heard Sony only paid to help get the port done. No exclusivity.”

Windows Central’s Jez Cordon then replied simply: “No misunderstanding here.”

Game Science, Sony and Microsoft have all refrained from confirming or denying these reports.

However, back in June, Microsoft appeared to hint there was some kind of Black Myth: Wukong exclusivity deal in place with Sony.

In a statement shared with Windows Central earlier this summer, a Microsoft spokesperson said: “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 centre of that.”

Eurogamer has reached out to Game Science, Microsoft and Sony for further comment on Black Myth: Wukong’s Xbox release and alleged PlayStation exclusivity.

Black Myth: Wukong broke records earlier in the month by becoming the most popular single-player game by peak concurrent users in Steam history and establishing itself as the most-viewed game on Chinese live-streaming platforms on its first day of release.

Last Friday, the Black Myth: Wukong team announced the game had shifted an impressive 10m copies across platforms. According to Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, “this makes it one of the fastest-selling games of all time, surpassing Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy in the same timeframe”.