While PlayStation 5 and PC gamers have enjoyed Game Science’s take on Journey to the West, Xbox players find themselves in an indefinite waiting period to play Black Myth: Wukong. Now, we might finally know why.
According to insiders at Gamescom 2024, Black Myth: Wukong has already failed Xbox certification twice, primarily due to a memory leak problem. The memory leak causes substantial crashes that not only compromise the game’s performance but potentially affect the Xbox consoles themselves, raising concerns about its stability, which ultimately led to its indefinite delay on the platform.
Game Science is reportedly working diligently to resolve the issue and optimize the game for Xbox Series S and X. However, the stringent certification process means the development team has to jump through a lot of hoops before they can receive approval for its release on Xbox.
Previously, many blamed the delay on Xbox Series S, similar to what happened with Baldur’s Gate 3. But it’s now clear that the game itself has flaws. The PS5 version of Black Myth: Wukong isn’t without its own memory leak problems. The same issue manifests after approximately five hours of continuous play on Sony’s console.
Although it’s still possible that the weaker hardware of the X Series S—the X Series S only has 8GB usable RAM compared to the 10GB on the X Series X and PS5—is a factor. We can’t underestimate the added burden on developers to optimize for the more powerful Xbox Series X and the less capable Xbox Series S, potentially leading to delays or compromised performance. The mandatory requirement may hold back the potential of cross-platform titles if it hasn’t already had a negative impact.
The memory leak issue is not just a matter of optimization but a fundamental bug that needs fixing. In simple terms, a memory leak occurs when a game fails to clear out memory properly before reusing it, leading to increased memory consumption over time. While restarting the game or the console can temporarily alleviate the problem, it’s not a sustainable solution for a commercial release.
On a positive note, this incident highlights Xbox’s strict certification process, which aims to maintain a higher quality standard for games released on its platform. But this commitment to quality comes at the cost of delayed releases and frustration for Xbox gamers, who can’t feel like they’re always on the sidelines.
Not to mention, this has given PlayStation a free pass on an exclusive title without paying any money for exclusive rights for the second year in a row.
Despite growing criticism regarding poor optimization and the lack of a Day One patch, Black Myth: Wukong continues to soar in popularity. If anything, the game’s weaknesses and lack of optimization have only driven calls for Sony to release the PS5 Pro sooner rather than later. More importantly, the game has converted non-console gamers in China and helped push Steam past 37 million concurrent users. It’s a huge miss for Xbox, possibly even bigger than Baldur’s Gate 3 last year.
For now, Game Science continues to optimize Black Myth: Wukong for Xbox Series S and X and plans to announce a release date as it passes certification. It assures fans that the Xbox version is “close to being ready,” but the timeline for resolving the game’s memory leak issue remains uncertain.
