Black Myth: Wukong released on PC and PS5 back in August, and the game has managed to sell million of copies worldwide in that short amount of time. While the game has proven quite successful, one platform’s users have been left waiting on a release. For months now, there has been talk about a version for Xbox Series X|S, but the game remains MIA. There have been many rumors about why that might be, from timed exclusivity deals with PlayStation, to a memory leak bug. However, the game’s director has now offered an explanation, and it’s one that shouldn’t be too surprising for Xbox users.
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In a January 1st post on Weibo, Black Myth: Wukong director and Game Science CEO Feng Ji talked about the game’s recent success at the Steam awards. In that post (translation provided by Google Chrome), he also took the opportunity to address the missing Xbox version, specifically the problem of “10G of shared memory.” Feng Ji states that “it’s really impossible to get it without several years of optimization experience.” In other words, the smaller size requirements of the Xbox Series S are causing headaches for the team at Game Science.
As a rule, Microsoft requires that games released on the Xbox Series X are also released on the Xbox Series S hardware. On one hand, this requirement has given players a much lower cost of entry into the Xbox ecosystem, with potential buyers not having to worry about games not being playable on the cheaper hardware. Unfortunately, that requirement has caused a lot of issues for third-party developers over the last few years. It’s widely assumed that the requirement pushed back the release of Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox, a situation that wasn’t resolved until developer Larian was able to make a compromise with Microsoft that saw splitscreen co-op dropped from the Xbox Series S version.
It’s unclear whether a similar deal can be struck to speed up the process of getting Black Myth: Wukong on Xbox platforms. The game was one of the most high-profile releases of 2024, and these are lost (or at the very least delayed) sales for both Game Science and Microsoft; the situation has to be a frustrating one for everyone involved. At the end of the day, it makes sense that Microsoft wants to avoid making Xbox Series S feel like an inferior option compared to the Xbox Series X. However, Series X customers are having to wait much longer to get specific games when compared to those on PS5 or PC.
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For the time being, Xbox users that want to play Black Myth: Wukong are just going to have to wait patiently. The post from Feng Ji doesn’t make it sound like we’re any closer to an Xbox release, but these types of public statements from third-party developers have had some success at reaching Phil Spencer. Hopefully the situation is resolved quickly, and users can get a chance to experience the game for themselves.
Do you think the Xbox Series S is more trouble than it’s worth for Microsoft? Are you waiting to play Black Myth: Wukong on Xbox? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!
[H/T: The Gamer]
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