We asked Black Myth: Wukong's developer about the controversy over its founders' past sexist remarks, but GameScience's only reply was 'No comment'
Black Myth: Wukong has set the second-highest peak player record in Steam's history, a spectacular launch for the Chinese action RPG that put it at the top of the global top sellers list. It's also a great game: we called it «a mythical action RPG with remarkably bizarre characters and daring boss battles» in our 87% review. That should be the only story for Black Myth: Wukong today, but it's not—what would otherwise be a celebratory launch has been dogged by controversy that studio GameScience seems unwilling to address, including in a recent interview with PC Gamer.
Streamer guidelines for Black Myth leaked before release, revealing a list of «don'ts» that included «feminist propaganda, fetishization, and other content that instigates negative discourse» as well as «content related to China's game industry policies, opinions, news, etc.» These restrictions came from co-publisher Hero Games and were not shared with PC Gamer or other press outlets. Of course, streamers and everyone else immediately started talking about the topics they were forbidden from talking about—the Streisand effect never fails.
It's impossible not to see those streamer guidelines as an extension of the crude and sexist comments made by GameScience's founders, as reported in a widely shared IGN report on how the studio's «history of sexism is complicating its journey to the west.»
GameScience has largely refrained from interviews (at least with western press) since early in Black Myth's development, but I spoke with a representative of the studio in late July to talk about the making of its adaptation of Journey to the West for PC Gamer magazine. During my interview I asked the representative—who asked to be credited as a member of the studio, rather than by name—if they could address the details in the report.
«We have no comment, we're sorry,» Game Science said via a translator. «We're only looking to answer questions related to the game and the gameplay.»
It was a frustrating answer,
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