Within just 3 days, Black Myth: Wukong became one of the most successful releases of the year on PlayStation 5 and PC. However, the game from Game Science did not launch on Xbox as originally planned. The studio announced an unexpected last-minute delay and did not elaborate on the reasons.
Initially, Xbox suggested that it was due to a possible exclusivity deal with PlayStation and Sony, but that turned out not to be the case. A new report reveals that the game did not launch on Xbox Series X|S due to decisions and policies by Microsoft, which have also affected the debut of other popular games on their consoles.
Black Myth: Wukong didnt arrive on Xbox due to technical issues, according to report
Paul Tassi, a journalist at Forbes, recently reaffirmed that the absence of Black Myth: Wukong on Xbox is not due to any agreement between Game Science and Sony. According to his sources, the only barrier to the titles release was Microsofts policies and its consoles.
According to the report, the popular action-adventure game did not launch on Xbox Series X|S due to technical issues. Tassi stated that the situation is very similar to Baldurs Gate III, which did not debut on Xbox due to performance issues on Xbox Series S.
While the journalist did not directly blame the less powerful console, it seems that the game requires more work to run properly on the system, which supposedly caused the indefinite delay. “The bad news is that, once again, Xbox seems to have fallen into a situation like Baldurs Gate III,” said Tassi.
As for Microsofts policies, the company requires technical parity and a simultaneous launch on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. So, if a game does not run well on one of the systems, the studio must delay it to achieve parity.
This policy was broken with the launch of Baldurs Gate III, as Larian Studios RPG arrived on Xbox Series S without the split-screen option, which was causing technical issues. Meanwhile, Insider Gaming contacted Microsoft to learn more about this potential issue. However, they only confirmed that they continue to work with Game Science to bring Black Myth: Wukong to Xbox.
"We are excited about the launch of Black Myth: Wukong on Xbox Series X|S and are working with Game Science to bring the game to our platforms," the company said.
All this considered, it seems that the game will take several months to arrive on Xbox Series X|S, just like Baldurs Gate III. For now, Game Science has not revealed any more details about the state of the port and its future release.