Black Myth: Wukong, the new action RPG from Chinese developer Game Science that is now considered by many to be an undisputed success, having sold 18.1 million units since its release just weeks ago on August 19, is absent on Xbox Series X|S not because of technical limitations, as some have apparently suggested, but because of another reason, possibly a business deal between Game Science and PlayStation, a representative with Microsoft has clarified. The new game, which was developed on Unreal Engine 5 and available now for PS5 and Windows PCs, has earned over $866 million in gross revenue and continues to see an active player count of over 1 million players, according to statistics that can be found online.
Some stats for the game currently include:
- 314k active players (current)
- 1.1m active players (24h peak)
- 95.9% positive reviews
- $866.8m gross revenue
- 18.1m units sold
- 31.9 hours avg play time
- 28 hours median play time
A rep with Microsoft said:
- “As we have said before, 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’d prefer not to comment on the deals made by our partners with other platform holders but we can confirm that the delay is not due to Xbox platform limitations that have been raised to us.”
Some recent promos for the game from NVIDIA:
From a report:
If Sony helped Game Science with paid tech work in exchange for a period of exclusivity, that would certainly not be a “traditional” exclusivity deal with the so-called “money hat” keeping it off rival platforms and allowing for a big PS-side marketing push. There are no specifics terms of the deal known, though Microsoft has twice now pointed directly in that direction with public statements. On the other side, if Game Science and Sony have not revealed the nature of an exclusivity arrangement at this point, they will likely not going forward. Game Science has already issued a conflicting statement with Microsoft citing ongoing “optimization” with the Xbox hardware, and that’s not explained here.