Black Myth: Wukong Deserved Astro Bot’s Game of the Year Award, Says Game Science CEO

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As someone who has been following the gaming industry for decades, I must admit that Feng Ji’s outburst at The Game Awards was a spectacle, to say the least. It’s not every day we see such passion and intensity from a game developer, especially one whose game has been recognized with multiple awards.

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Despite many people expressing delight with Geoff Keighley’s newest edition of The Game Awards (with the exception of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth), it seems that at least one executive was left bitter without the statue they had hoped for. Feng Ji, CEO of Game Science and producer of Black Myth: Wukong, took to the Chinese social media platform Weibo in a lengthy rant, expressing frustration saying, “I came [to The Game Awards] for nothing,” and also criticizing the supposedly vague standards used to determine Game of the Year.

The seven-part monologue may be challenging to understand at times due to its passionate tone, occasional references to poetry and literature, and the fact that it was machine-translated and edited for clarity by TheGamer. However, some of its statements are quite direct, and I find it hard to believe that its overall message is unclear. It’s essential to recall that Wukong garnered five nominations and eventually won Player’s Choice and Best Action Game awards, which is a level of recognition most games don’t receive.

Ji voiced bewilderment over how the TGA chose their Game of the Year contender and lamented not being able to deliver his acceptance speech live. He referenced the Player’s Choice award, stating: “I’ve noticed a lot of players showing discontent, reluctance, and disappointment in their comments – much of it presented humorously and critically, which is quite amusing.

Ji contends that Wukong’s unquestionable commercial triumph was no stroke of luck, but rather the expected outcome of the studio’s ethos: “Some might argue that a team achieving such outcomes with their inaugural standalone game is a rare occurrence, a fluke, and hard to replicate. However, I believe this wasn’t a fluke. It was the predictable result of the intersection between Chinese culture, Chinese talents, China’s business landscape, China’s gaming industry, and the global player base. It wasn’t a gamble; it was a journey.

At the Game Awards, Alanah Pearce, a previous writer for IGN and Sony Santa Monica, claims she heard sobbing sounds from the front row, apparently originating from the Game Science team. While it’s understandable that people may get emotional during such events (even our team at Push Square isn’t immune to tears), this incident seems to indicate that the developers might have been hoping for a more significant outcome, which could undermine the atmosphere of friendly competition and camaraderie these events aim to foster.

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2024-12-16 05:06