Black Myth: Wukong Dev Takes a Shot at Xbox Series S—Is It the Real Reason the Game’s Missing?
Well, well, well. Looks like Black Myth: Wukong’s developers aren’t holding back. After the game snagged Game of the Year at the 2024 Steam Awards, Game Science’s co-founder and CEO, Feng Ji, posted something that’s bound to stir the pot. His tweet? He’s blaming the Xbox Series S for the absence of a version of the game on Xbox. Oof.
Ji didn’t mince words on Chinese social media platform Weibo, where he congratulated the game for its success but pointed out that the only thing missing? The Xbox version. His reasoning? That 10GB of shared memory in the Xbox Series S is just too much of a headache for developers without years of optimization under their belt. You can almost hear the frustration in his words: “The 10GB of shared memory — without years of optimisation experience — is really hard to make work.”
What’s he talking about? It’s a jab at the Series S' comparatively weaker specs. We’re talking 4 teraflops of GPU power versus the 12.2 teraflops in the Series X. But the real kicker is the drop in memory—from 16GB in the Series X to just 10GB in the Series S. It’s a performance bottleneck that’s tough to overcome for developers not intimately familiar with the hardware.
But here’s where it gets interesting: Xbox's policy requires all games to be playable across both Series X and Series S, no exceptions. That means any game made for the Series X also has to run on the Series S. Not every developer’s a fan of this rule, especially since it’s caused headaches for titles like Baldur’s Gate 3. The folks over at Larian Studios had to delay the Xbox version of their game because of issues getting the Series S to handle splitscreen co-op. And it’s not just Larian—Remedy’s communications director Thomas Puha talked about how the Series S’ GPU is an issue for Alan Wake 2 too. That extra memory squeeze? It’s no joke.
And yet, even with all this buzz, Xbox boss Phil Spencer’s been pretty tight-lipped about whether the Series S is holding developers back. He’s gone on record saying that the sub-$300 price tag for the Series S is a good thing for the industry. Sure, it’s a lower barrier to entry for gamers, but can it keep up with the demands of next-gen gaming? We’ll see.
Of course, it’s not all about hardware. Microsoft’s been making some noise about an exclusivity deal with Sony being the real reason Black Myth: Wukong hasn’t dropped on Xbox yet. According to statements from the company, they’re “working with Game Science” to bring the game to Xbox, but they’re not spilling the tea on any platform-specific limitations. Nice try, Microsoft. We all know how these things work behind the scenes.
And while all this back-and-forth over Xbox's consoles is making headlines, don’t forget just how big of a hit Black Myth: Wukong has been. Launched back in August, the game sold an astonishing 18 million copies in just two weeks. We’re talking GTA V and CoD: Modern Warfare 2 level sales, folks. And at a reported budget of $70 million over six years, that’s one heck of a return on investment. Sony was quick to point out how much Wukong helped buoy its financial quarter, especially after the Concord flop.
But we’re not done yet. Word on the street is that Black Myth: Wukong isn’t just about the base game. Nope, Game Science has an Elden Ring-style expansion lined up. So buckle up, because there’s more where that came from.
