There’s conflicting rumours about Black Myth: Wukong on Xbox, as one set of insiders claim it’s a PS5 exclusive and others that it’s not.
Black Myth: Wukong has had a hugely successful launch on PlayStation 5 and PC, but a whole lot of confusion has emerged around the delay of the Xbox Series X/S version.
Earlier this week, leaker eXtas1s claimed the Xbox port had been ‘indefinitely delayed’ due to a ‘memory leak’ technical issue, which meant it had failed to pass Microsoft’s bug detection tests. The leaker’s sources were ‘Xbox insiders and developers’ at Gamescom.
A number of reports, however, have since refuted this, claiming the delay is actually due to a secret timed exclusivity deal with Sony, which is holding back the Xbox version.
This was first reported by Forbes, but it has since been corroborated by sources at IGN. Speaking to the latter, a source described the tech issues rumour as ‘inaccurate’.
The original leaker, eXtas1s, has since doubled down on his initial claims, while several other insiders, including Jeff Grubb and XboxEra podcast host Nick Baker, have also insisted there is no secret PlayStation 5 exclusivity deal.
In response to the Forbes report, Baker claimed there’s been a ‘misunderstanding’ and that ‘Sony only paid to help get the port done’ on PlayStation, adding that there’s ‘no exclusivity’.
The situation is even more muddled as developer Game Science and Microsoft appeared to put out contradictory statements, prior to these rumours, regarding the Xbox version’s delay.
On a FAQ page in June, Game Science said: ‘We are currently optimising the Xbox Series X/S version to meet our quality standards, so it won’t release simultaneously with the other platforms. 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.’
This doesn’t indicate that there’s any exclusivity deal with Sony, but a statement from Microsoft (via Windows Central) alludes to some kind of deal. ‘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,’ the statement read.
‘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.’
The exclusivity claim seems strange though, because Sony hasn’t marketed Black Myth: Wukong as an exclusive. In fact, it doesn’t seem to have been marketed by Sony at all, only Game Science. Which is definitely not how exclusivity deals work.
Sony has never tried to hide exclusivity deals before – indeed, that would defeat the whole point of them – and it seems highly unlikely that an Xbox version would already be announced, as that also negates the purpose of a deal (although Microsoft themselves don’t seem to realise this, given how they handled Indiana Jones And The Great Circle).
On the other hand, there’s an increasingly long list of multiformat games that have been delayed, or not released at all, on Xbox.
For example, Baldur’s Gate 3 was delayed on the platform due to issues getting the split-screen feature to run on the Xbox Series S, which according to Microsoft’s rules has to have feature parity with the Xbox Series X version in order to be released across both platforms.
Neither Game Science or Sony has commented on the rumours, but it seems most likely there is no exclusivity deal and there’s just been a misunderstanding, perhaps over the alleged financial help Sony gave to Game Science.
Since it launched earlier this month, Black Myth: Wukong has managed to break records on Steam, surpassing both Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 in peak player counts, primarily thanks to the game’s popularity in China.
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