Black Myth: Wukong's record-setting launch popularity soured by co-publisher request to avoid "feminist propaganda" in streams

rockpapershotgun.com:

Our Black Myth: Wukong review hails the game as "a generous Soulsy adventure hybrid that works within its limitations and delivers a beautiful challenge to be unpicked with a magical toolbox". Reviewer Edders went so far as to find the world more engaging than that of Elden Ring - proper defying-the-gods level rhetoric. Players seem to agree. The game launched last night, and has already accrued a concurrent player peak of 1.44 million - Steam's fourth highest ever, exceeded only by Counter-Strike, Palworld and PUBG. By that metric, it's the platform's most popular strictly single player game of all the time.

All that goodwill has been spoiled, however, by a Steam code handout message to streamers and other "content creators" before launch which includes some reactionary, non-binding requests - no mention of "trigger words" like "Covid-19", no talk of "politics" or "feminist propaganda", and no mention of "China's game industry policies, opinions, news, etc".

The Google Doc in question is apparently from a representative of Chinese publisher Hero Games, one of developer Game Science's largest external investors, who have also partnered through investment with Kuro Games Studio, creators of Wuthering Waves. It was shared on Bluesky by French journalist Benoit Reinier over the weekend and subsequently written up by Forbes and VideoGames SI. IGN have also now verified it, citing an anonymous source. I've asked Game Science for a comment on the matter, but I haven't had anything back.

The email outlines various "Do's and Don'ts" for people streaming or making other types of content about Black Myth: Wukong. Under "Do's", we find only "enjoy the game!" Under "Don'ts", we find the below:

• Do NOT insult other influencers or players.

• Do NOT use any offensive language/humor.

• Do NOT include politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishization, and other content that instigates negative discourse.

• Do NOT use trigger words such as 'quarantine' or