In August 2024, Game Science did what few debut studios dare to dream. Its first major title, Black Myth: Wukong, sold 10 million copies in three days. On Steam, it reached 2.41 million concurrent players, surpassing Cyberpunk 2077’s 1.05 million peak and standing second only to PUBG: Battlegrounds in the all-time chart. The monkey king had not merely arrived; he had stormed the industry’s gates. Yet for all the fireworks, one question kept flickering at the edge of the celebration: why was there no Xbox version?
The game launched on PC and PlayStation 5. At Summer Game Fest 2024, when Game Science opened pre-orders, the studio also announced a delay for Xbox Series S|X. Early whispers suggested Sony had signed a timed console exclusivity deal. Microsoft did not comment on that rumor. Then, in the reporting that followed, several insiders offered another explanation: a technical problem, specifically a memory leak issue. The story shifted from boardroom mystery to engineering headache. But was it that simple?
Forbes obtained a statement from a Microsoft spokesperson, who denied any such issues known to the company. The spokesperson said Microsoft was excited for the launch on Xbox Series X|S and was working with Game Science to bring the game to its platforms. They added that Microsoft would prefer not to comment on deals made by partners with other platform holders, but confirmed the delay was not due to Xbox platform limitations raised to them. In other words, Microsoft pushed back on the technical explanation without fully solving the puzzle. The door remained shut, and no one would say exactly why.
That ambiguity turned the Xbox delay into a shadow narrative. The main story was triumph: a Chinese studio, a mythological epic, a global audience, a record-breaking Steam peak. The shadow story was silence: no release window, no clear cause, no clean answer. Was this a soft exclusivity arrangement for a set period? Was it a memory leak that Microsoft had not been told about? Or was it simply the messy reality of launching a massive game across platforms while managing partner deals, technical certification, and regional expectations? The public could only guess.
The numbers made the silence louder. A game that sold 10 million copies in three days did not need a mystery to attract attention, but the missing Xbox version gave the conversation a second life. Fans compared statements, insiders compared notes, and Microsoft’s careful wording became its own kind of Rorschach test. The spokesperson’s denial was firm, yet narrow: the delay was not due to platform limitations ‘raised to us.’ That phrasing left room for problems Microsoft had not been told about, or for business arrangements it would not discuss. What is a platform limitation, after all, if not a phrase flexible enough to mean different things to different people?
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Copies sold in first three days | 10 million |
| Peak concurrent players on Steam | 2.41 million |
| Cyberpunk 2077 peak on Steam | 1.05 million |
| All-time Steam peak rank | Second, behind PUBG: Battlegrounds |
Meanwhile, the rumor mill kept turning. Earlier that week, another whisper suggested there could be two DLCs for Black Myth: Wukong before an inevitable sequel entered production. That detail fit the larger pattern: Game Science had a hit, and the industry wanted to know what came next. But the Xbox question remained a loose thread. The game had no release window for Xbox, and the absence was beginning to feel less like a delay and more like a story no one wanted to tell on the record.
By 2026, the episode reads like a case study in modern game launches. A blockbuster can break records and still be defined, in part, by what it withholds. A platform holder can issue a denial and still leave the public with more questions than answers. A developer can celebrate a historic debut and still face scrutiny over a version that has not arrived. The monkey king’s journey was epic, but the business around him was human: strategic, cautious, and sometimes opaque. 🎮
For players, the lesson is both simple and frustrating. Success does not guarantee clarity. A record-breaking launch does not automatically open every door. And a spokesperson’s statement, however carefully worded, is not the same as a complete explanation. The Xbox version of Black Myth: Wukong became a riddle wrapped in a release calendar, and the riddle was never fully solved in the reporting. The only certainty was the achievement: 10 million copies in three days, 2.41 million concurrent players on Steam, and a place in the history books. Everything else was shadow.
Recent analysis comes from The Verge - Gaming, whose reporting on platform strategy and major releases helps frame why Black Myth: Wukong’s Xbox absence became such a persistent talking point alongside its record-setting launch, especially when hardware certification, partner agreements, and public messaging can all shape the final release schedule as much as technical performance does.