Black Myth: Wukong is set to take over the gaming world, although there's one market that will miss out on playing it. At least, for now.

It looks like the next best soulslike not developed by its creators is finally here, as Black Myth: Wukong has been truly killing it on its first days in the hands of players. The slick and acrobatic gameplay of the brutal RPG has already gripped souls fans everywhere, and as we explored in our review, it’s clear already that Black Myth: Wukong is another smash hit.

It serves as an eclectic step into Elden Ring’s genre, exploring Chinese culture in a more fantastical way than fellow Eastern soulslike Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, which debuted comfortably on Xbox Game Pass. However, Black Myth: Wukong isn't yet available to play on the Xbox family of consoles, let alone on its subscription services. Not yet anyway.

This is a curious omission, especially as developers Game Science had every intention to bring The Destined One’s adventure to the Xbox Series X|S Consoles – here's why it's not on Xbox yet.

Black: Myth Wukong Xbox release delay explained

The reason for Black Myth: Wukong’s Xbox release delay, even though Game Science seems to have had every intention to allow for the game to be available on the platform from day one, appears to be an Xbox optimisation problem. In an FAQ post from June, Game Science revealed that while the game is releasing on PC and PlayStation, the team is “currently optimising the Xbox Series X|S version to meet our quality standards, so it won’t release simultaneously with other platforms.” The company has assured fans that it will announce a release date as soon as it feels that the game meets its standards.

A similar problem made Baldur’s Gate 3’s life on Xbox get off to a rocky start, as the hardware of the consoles made for issues in split-screen multiplayer that kept Larian Studios from initially releasing the game on Xbox. It seems that similar issues could be affecting Black Myth: Wukong, though we can only hope that this doesn’t lead to a similar three-month delay, after Baldur’s Gate 3's Xbox release date was revealed as December 7, 2023, after launching on PlayStation on September 6, 2023.

It’s not a great position for Black Myth: Wukong to be in, as thankfully it's not willing to skimp on the Xbox version of the game, but it’s still a market it's not selling games in right now. We can imagine Steam sales are more than making up for it, but we're willing to bet that's not much of a consolation for Game Science.