Rumours of a PlayStation exclusivity deal for Black Myth: Wukong have arisen, causing confusion around its forthcoming Xbox release.
Black Myth: Wukong released earlier this month across PC and PlayStation 5, with an Xbox version still awaiting a launch date. Back in June, developer Game Science stated it was “optimising” the Xbox Series X/S version of the game “to meet our quality standards”.
As such, Black Myth: Wukong was not released on Xbox simultaneously with PC and PlayStation. “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,” Game Science said at that time.
Reports have since circulated the reason for this ongoing delay is due to technical issues with Black Myth: Wukong’s Xbox version.
Earlier this week, leaker eXtas1s claimed to have spoken to Xbox developers during Gamescom, and reported the game is “suffering from a bug known as ‘memory leak’, which can cause significant crashes that could compromise the performance” of Xbox consoles. As a result, eXtas1s said Black Myth: Wukong “has not passed Xbox’s bug detection tests and has therefore been indefinitely delayed until they manage to optimise the game for Series X/S”.
However, following word of technical issues with the Xbox version, other sources have said the reason for the delay is actually due to an undisclosed exclusivity deal made between the Black Myth: Wukong developer and PlayStation.
The exclusivity deal has been corroborated by Forbes and IGN sources, though the exact terms of this alleged deal remain unknown. Previous claims of tech issues causing a delay to the Xbox release are “inaccurate”, IGN was told.
The exclusivity agreement was subsequently disputed by journalist Jeff Grubb. Speaking as part of Giant Bomb’s Game Mess Decides podcast, Grubb said “Sony has no money marketing deal to keep [Black Myth: Wukong] off of Xbox” consoles, as per his sources.