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

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 'isolation' or 'COVID-19'.

• Do NOT discuss content related to China's game industry policies, opinions, news, etc.

The cautionary note against "feminist propaganda" is a reminder that Game Science have yet to respond to allegations of pervasive sexist behaviour from November last year. In a lengthy report for IGN, Rebekah Valentine and Khee Hoon Chan described "a studio plagued by claims of sexism", linking this to misogyny elsewhere in the Chinese games industry and on the government-firewalled Chinese internet. The developers have raised the drawbridge in response: when Edders attended a preview event earlier this year, they refused to say anything on the subject in advance.

The request not to focus on Covid, meanwhile, seems to reflect the Chinese government's track record for censoring discussion of the disease and preventative measures.

I know little about the internal workings of Chinese game publishing or the Chinese gaming community, but yesterday Lu-Hai Liang published an interesting editorial for Nikkei in which he explores Black Myth: Wukong's importance to the regional games industry and to Chinese players. It's a prestigious, "triple-A" release from a country that, in Liang's analysis, lacks a track record for "premium" single player offerings due to government regulation of consoles, and is associated overseas with free-to-play gacha mechanics like those found in Genshin Impact - to say nothing of sinophobic reactions to the international investments of Chinese publishers like Tencent.

In Liang's view, Wukong's evident quality and global popularity have made it attractive to Chinese nationalists, and this has at times mushroomed into jingoistic dog-piling of the game's critics - especially in the wake of IGN's report into sexism at Game Science. "There is an edge to the online response and the attachment Chinese players feel for Black Myth: Wukong can tip into nationalistic pride," Liang writes.

I'll let you know if I hear anything back from the developers. In the meantime, Hero Games have just announced CrisisX, the tale of a devastating infestation in a quiet US coastal town. It'll be on show at Gamescom this week - I wonder if they'll ask booth attendees to avoid mentioning quarantines in their coverage.

In a press release about CrisisX, Hero Games's CEO Daniel Wu also describes the company's ambition to expand their publishing operations into western markets. "We are deeply invested in the global markets, and with CrisisX, we aim to take Hero Games to the next level," he wrote. "We feel that now is the time to introduce ourselves and our products to a wider audience."