Journalists cannot come to a consensus, and players do not know who to trust.
When the Xbox version of Black Myth: Wukong was delayed in June of this year, the developers cited the need for more time to optimize for the Xbox Series X|S. This suggested that the problem was probably with the Series S, like with Baldur’s Gate 3. But things gradually got more complicated.
Back in June, journalist Jez Corden published an article for Windows Central magazine, where we also found Microsoft’s statement. “We cannot comment on our partnerships with other console manufacturers,” said a representative of the American company at the time, which, understandably, surprised players. It was hinted that PlayStation paid for exclusivity, but other than that statement, there was no indication of this. PlayStation did not do any exclusive marketing for Wukong, and the port we got last week is strange and in many ways not very professionally done.
Anyway, there was a long silence around the Xbox version until insider eXtas1s reported new information. He had to learn from Xbox representatives and developers at Gamescom that the delay was due to technical issues. Specifically, a memory leak is suspected, the game gradually “steals” chunks of memory until there is nothing left, starts crashing en masse and the only solution is to restart the game or the console itself. Due to this problem, Wukong allegedly failed certification for Xbox twice, although the PS5 version also has a memory leak. On Xbox, its effects are apparently greater, and again, the Series S may play a role in this, which has less memory, so the negative effects may appear earlier.
It all seemed clear, but eXtas1s only started a huge avalanche of comments from journalists and insiders. As we reported today, the first to chime in was renowned journalist Paul Tassi of Forbes magazine. His source, whom Tassi calls very reliable, says that technical issues are not to blame for the delay and that PlayStation has agreed on an exclusivity that is apparently temporary, although he does not know the details. Kat Bailey of IGN has since confirmed Tassi’s information. Also, according to her source, this should be an exclusive that neither Game Science nor Sony are disclosing.
But that’s not all. Journalist Jeff Grubb later made a statement on the Game Mess Decides podcast that he had not negotiated PlayStation exclusivity. But he did make an interesting point, purely as a guess, that Game Science went with the PS5 version because China has far more consoles than Xbox, and China is by far the most important market for Wukong.
By the way, insider Nick Kbitelal says something similar. Also, according to his sources, there is no exclusivity here, but he adds that, according to his information, Sony financially helped the developers complete the port to PS5, hence the misunderstanding. However, Jez Corden from Windows Central immediately objected that there was no misunderstanding and he still insists that this is exclusivity. Paul Tassi from Forbes also continues to believe his source. “I have the utmost respect for Jeff and Nick. I wouldn’t have published this unless it was an extremely credible source.” says on Twitter.
It’s hard to say where the truth is. On one hand, there are the developers themselves and the leader of eXtasis1, who believe that technical issues are behind the delay of the Xbox version. On the other hand, there are journalists Paul Tassi from Forbes, Kat Bailey from IGN and Jez Corden from Windows Central, who say that PlayStation has contractual exclusivity. And finally, there are journalist Jeff Grubb and insider Kbital Nick, who, although they do not cite technical issues as the reason, clearly ruled out PS5 exclusivity. Let’s hope that someone will finally “solve” this whole matter soon.
Source :Indian TV
