Latest news with #GameScience
Engadget
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Engadget
Black Myth: Wukong is getting an Xbox port on August 20
Black Myth: Wukong is finally coming to the Xbox Series X|S, one year after it was released for the PlayStation 5 and for Windows PCs. Its developer Game Science will roll out the Xbox version of the game on August 20, but you'll be able to pre-order the game starting on June 17 at 12PM Eastern time. If you place your pre-order before July 10 12PM Eastern, you'll be able to get the typically $60 title with a 20 percent discount at $48. The action role-playing game is inspired by the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West , adapting its universe, as well as its characters and their backstories. You'll take control of a monkey protagonist based on the novel's main character, Sun Wukong, who uses a staff as a weapon. The staff shrinks and extends in combat and has several possible techniques that provide you a variety of moves to choose from. It's considered as China's first true AAA game and broke Steam's concurrent players record for a single-player title just a few hours after it became available. In addition to announcing that the Xbox version of the game is coming out in August, Game Science has also launched a promotion for all platforms. Starting on June 17 at 12PM until July 2 at 12PM Eastern time, the standard and Deluxe PS5 editions of the game will be 20 percent off at $48 and $56, respectively. The PC version will be priced the same, though the sale will begin on June 19, 1PM and end on July 10, 1PM Eastern time on Steam, WeGame and the Epic Games Store.
Forbes
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Black Myth: Wukong's Xbox Release Date Is One Year After PS5's
Black Myth: Wukong The saga of Black Myth: Wukong's absence on Xbox is finally coming to an end as Game Science has announced the enormous hit is coming to the platform. And curiously, it is one year to the day after the game's release on PlayStation and PC on August 20, 2024. Wukong will now be released on Xbox on August 20, 2025. This caps off a long saga that I ended up tangled up in when I reported that a source with knowledge of the situation told me that Black Myth: Wukong had an exclusivity deal with Sony was keeping the game off Xbox, which was later confirmed by IGN and Windows Central. That eventually elicited a statement from Microsoft heavily implying that was indeed what was happening, and claims that their hardware (namely Xbox Series S) was responsible for the delay was not the case. The statement: Still, that eventually led Game Science to comment on the difficulty of porting the game to Series S, which many took as confirmation that was the reason for the delay after all, not a deal. But neither Sony nor Game Science, through all of this, denied that an exclusivity deal was in place. Even now, no exclusivity deal is now absolutely confirmed, nor will it ever be, publicly, most likely. But the fact that Wukong is releasing exactly a year after its PC/PlayStation-only release would certainly indicate that is likely the case. I stood by my source back then and I maintain that's why this is happening now. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Black Myth: Wukong I've seen it brought up that August 20 is a special date in general for Black Myth: Wukong. There is no official date for the birth of the Monkey King in legend, but August 20 has been mentioned in the past. It is the case that Game Science first debuted Wukong footage on August 20, 2022. Then they did a hands-on on August 20, 2023. Then there was the PlayStation release in 2024 and now Xbox in 2025. I don't take this as some sort of explanation. You could certainly say that Game Science picked the date on purpose due to its supposed relationship to Wukong lore. But if you did that and then say, made a year-long exclusivity deal, that would of course end on…August 20 of the following year. Multiple things can be true. It may really have been tough to develop Wukong for Microsoft's lower-spec Series S, but simultaneously, a deal could have been in place. However, five months ago, this was the director of Black Myth: Wukong on Weibo: "Several years" appears to have been exactly a year between platform releases and less than six months from when he said this. I trust what I was told, and here we are. Again, such a deal is unlikely to ever be confirmed publicly, but this is the date, one year after PlayStation's release. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Balatro' Wins Game of the Year at Game Developers Choice Awards; ‘Consume Me' Takes Top Honor for Independent Games Festival
'Balatro' won Game of the Year at the 2025 Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) on Wednesday, just after 'Consume Me' received the top prize at the Independent Games Festival Awards (IGFA). From LocalThunk and Playstack, 'Balatro' is a indie roguelike deckbuilding game that has a 'unique spin on the timeless card game Poker where players build unique decks with a variety of distinct cards to score points and defeat blinds within the roguelike gameplay.' More from Variety Griffin Gaming Partners' Peter Levin Talks AI, Industry Trends, Emerging Markets & Hollywood Interest Amid GDC One in 10 Video Game Developers Were Laid Off in 2024, GDC Report Finds 'Consume Me' and 'Despelote' Among Top Nominees for GDC's Independent Games Festival Awards During the 25th edition of annual awards show, which took place at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco amid the Game Developers Conference, 'Balatro' also won Best Debut, Innovation Award and Best Design. PlayStation Studios-owned Team ASOBI's 'Astro Bot' was the runner-up in total wins for the night, taking Best Audio and Best Technology. Other winners included 'Black Myth: Wukong' (Game Science), which won Best Visual Art, 'Metaphor: ReFantazio' (Studio Zero / ATLUS) which received Best Narrative, 'Life is Strange: Double Exposure' (Deck Nine Games / Square Enix) which won the Social Impact Award and 'Final Fantasy VII Rebirth' (Square Enix) which took the Audience Award. Additionally, the GDCA honored writer and director Sam Lake with the Lifetime Achievement Award and Lucas Pope with the Pioneer Award. Earlier in the evening, the 27th annual Independent Games Festival, which took place back to back with Game Developers Choice Awards at the Moscone Convention Center, 'Consume Me,' won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game. Described as a 'darkly humorous personal game' about creator Jenny Jiao Hsia's relationship with food, 'Consume Me' draws from her past experiences with dieting and disordered eating. Previous IGF prize winners have included 'Venba,' 'Neon White,' 'TUNIC,' 'Return of the Obra Dinn' and 'Her Story.' See the full list of the 2025 Game Developers Choice Award winners below. Best DebutBalatro (LocalThunk / Playstack) Best Visual ArtBlack Myth: Wukong (Game Science) Best AudioAstro Bot (PlayStation Studios Team ASOBI / Sony Interactive Entertainment) Best NarrativeMetaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero / ATLUS) Social Impact AwardLife is Strange: Double Exposure (Deck Nine Games / Square Enix) Innovation AwardBalatro (LocalThunk / Playstack) Best TechnologyAstro Bot (PlayStation Studios Team ASOBI / Sony Interactive Entertainment) Best DesignBalatro (LocalThunk / Playstack) Audience AwardFinal Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix) Game of the YearBalatro (LocalThunk / Playstack) Pioneer AwardLucas Pope Lifetime Achievement AwardSam Lake And below are the winners of the 27th annual IGF Awards: Excellence in Visual Art ($2,000)Hauntii (Moonloop Games / Firestoke) Excellence in Audio ($2,000)Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic) Excellence in Design ($2,000)Tactical Breach Wizards (Suspicious Developments) Excellence in Narrative ($2,000)Caves of Qud (Freehold Games / Kitfox Games) Nuovo Award ($2,000)Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken 'coda' Snyder) Best Student Game ($2,000)Slot Waste (Vinny Roca) Audience Award ($2,000)The WereCleaner (The WereCleaner Team / USC Games) Award ($2,000)ChromaCorp (Art Center) Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($10,000)Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken 'coda' Snyder) Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More What's Coming to Disney+ in March 2025
New York Times
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Censoring Games
Marvel Rivals is one of the biggest video games in the world. Since its launch in December, more than 40 million people have signed up to fight one another as comic book heroes like Iron Man and Wolverine. But when players used the game's text chat to talk with teammates and opponents, they noticed something: Certain phrases, including 'free Hong Kong' and 'Tiananmen Square,' were not allowed. While Marvel Rivals is based on an iconic American franchise, it was developed by a Chinese company, NetEase Games. It has become the latest example of Chinese censorship creeping into media that Americans consume. You can't type 'free Tibet,' 'free Xinjiang,' 'Uyghur camps,' 'Taiwan is a country' or '1989' (the year of the Tiananmen Square massacre) in the chat. You can type 'America is a dictatorship' but not 'China is a dictatorship.' Even memes aren't spared. 'Winnie the Pooh' is banned, because people have compared China's leader, Xi Jinping, to the cartoon bear. The restrictions are largely confined to China-related topics. You can type 'free Palestine,' 'free Kashmir' and 'free Crimea.' Why does all of this matter? Video games are not just sources of entertainment; they are also social platforms. Every day, hundreds of millions of children and adults log on to games like Fortnite, World of Warcraft and, yes, Marvel Rivals to play together and hang out. For many young people, these games are as social as Facebook or X. China's video game industry is growing. As it does, the country's authoritarian leaders are setting the terms of how these social platforms work. Growing problem China's market, with hundreds of millions of potential customers, has long enticed game developers. But companies have to play by China's rules to get in, and that means accepting censorship. (Other industries, including movies and sports, have faced similar challenges.) Until recently, this censorship mostly appeared in the Chinese versions of Western-made games. China deemed the military shooter PUBG too violent, so its developers reworked it. When someone shoots and kills another player in the Chinese version, the victim doesn't exactly die; he kneels and waves goodbye before vanishing. As China's game developers have grown and gone international, however, they've also exported their style of censorship. Last year, the Chinese developer Game Science released Black Myth: Wukong. It was a hit with Western audiences, and it became the first Chinese-made game to be nominated for game of the year at the Game Awards, the industry's equivalent to best picture at the Oscars. But before the game's release, a company affiliated with Game Science told people streaming the game that they should avoid talking about certain topics, including 'feminist propaganda' and Covid. The problem stands to get worse. As China's economy grows, Western developers will have greater incentives to release games there. China's game industry is taking off and will continue to export games. Chinese publishers, such as the conglomerate Tencent, have also bought Western developers, and the Chinese government could push them to censor their games, too. Player pushback In some cases, consumers have pushed back against censorship. In 2019, the American developer Blizzard suspended a player from Hong Kong and revoked his prize money after he said, 'Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,' at a competitive event. Many fans saw the punishment as Blizzard bowing to censorship so it could continue to sell games in China. The fans started a boycott and canceled subscriptions to Blizzard games. Members of Congress spoke out. Blizzard eventually reduced the player's punishment and returned his prize money. Chinese developers are insulated from this kind of public criticism. But Western companies like Blizzard aren't. With Marvel Rivals, Disney licensed its intellectual property for the game. Microsoft allows the game on its Xbox consoles. The Valve Corporation, based in Bellevue, Wash., hosts the game on Steam, the biggest marketplace for computer games. In that sense, the responsibility for censorship is shared by China's leaders and the Western companies that play along. Related: I recommend reading The Times's exploration of Metroidvanias, a video game genre that leverages mysterious, mazelike settings to evoke feelings of discovery and progression. Trump Administration German Election More International News Other Big Stories It can be hard to keep up with the deluge of news from the White House. The Times has created a page to track the Trump administration — including its major executive orders, memos, lawsuits and social media posts. Here are some from the past week: See the full list here. Some scholars say the U.S. is already in a constitutional crisis. Who bears responsibility? Trump. Behind a curtain of culture war distractions, the president is consolidating power. 'Trump has unconstitutionally usurped control over the steering wheel of democracy, shoved the gear into reverse and slammed on the gas all while making sure you have enough going on to not look up from your iPad in the backseat.' Aidan Cummins writes for The Daily Cardinal. Congress. Thirty years of congressional dysfunction brought us to this point, and their continuing inaction enables Trump to do as he wishes. 'Members of Congress are not helpless cogs in a political machine they cannot control. Individually, collectively, they have agency, responsibility and power,' Steven Pearlstein writes for Roll Call. Ukrainians are tired of fighting. But pride and determination won't allow them to end the war on Russia's terms, Artem Chekh writes. JD Vance and Elon Musk should not lend credibility to Germany's far-right party, which is both pro-Russian and anti-American, James Kirchick writes. Here's a column by Maureen Dowd on Trump portraying himself as king. A long journey: Leonard Peltier spent 50 years in prison for the murders of two F.B.I. agents. Now he's back on his home reservation to serve the remainder of his sentence. Coin purge: If the U.S. gets rid of pennies, it might want to consider scrapping nickels, too: The five-cent pieces cost about 14 cents to make. Vows: A 'perfect fit' in love and fashion. Most clicked yesterday: See what $475,000 can get you in Manhattan. Lives Lived: Carlos Diegues was a film director who highlighted Brazil's ethnic richness and its social turbulence. He died at 84. 'Dream State,' by Eric Puchner: Weddings gone wrong have long been fictional catnip, but Eric Puchner puts a fresh spin on the plot in his second novel, 'Dream State,' which Oprah Winfrey just selected as her 111th book club pick. The trouble starts when Cece, a bright-eyed bride-to-be, arrives in Montana to finalize the details of her wedding alongside her husband-to-be's depressed best friend, who is (to her chagrin) performing the ceremony. The pair develop an unexpected rapport. Then norovirus disrupts the nuptials, setting in motion a chain of events that spans 50 years, two generations and an ever-worsening climate crisis that leads to respirator masks and a death cult. If this sounds like a bit of a bait and switch — a romantic romp turned dystopian — well, it might be. But it's also a thoughtful meditation on the seismic impact of small decisions on human and earthly conditions. It couldn't be more timely. More on books This week's subject for The Interview is the best-selling science writer Ed Yong, who talked about how engaging with nature helped him combat feelings of professional burnout. When you're watching birds — and this could apply to the natural world writ large — there is so much going on beyond our comprehension. Because of our sensory capabilities as human beings, we are condemned to having only an ankle-deep understanding of what it is to be alive on Earth. To me, that's humbling and mind-blowing. What do you think? I fully agree. I mean, that is a beautiful précis of basically my entire body of work. Nailed it! [Laughs.] I can go home now, right? All of it is about the idea that much of the world is hidden from us, that we don't perceive it and don't understand it, and that it is worth understanding and it is necessary to understand. I have a curmudgeonly question. Developing an awareness of the magic that's happening all around us at any given moment, and understanding that there's this vast cosmic dance playing out — in the abstract, I can see how internalizing those perspectives might change one's perspective. But did your understanding of the bigger existential stuff you were writing about actually help you when you were struggling? I can say that thinking about these ideas constantly really helped me. It felt like a salve to all of that moral injury and despair that I was feeling. It doesn't cure it, but it fills my life with wonder and joy, and that acts as a buffer against all the other existential dread and fear that we have to grapple with. There is a kind of implosive effect of the modern world, and the science and nature writing that I'm prioritizing, and the birding that I do, are all counters to that. Read more of the interview here. Click the cover image above to read this week's magazine. Turn store-bought rotisserie chicken into a healthy dinner. Embrace monochromatic dressing. Use sleep headphones. Emily Weinstein's favorite recipes to make at home aren't the most elaborate — they're simple, with a single technique or ingredient that makes the dish distinctive. In this week's Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily suggests meals that feature what she terms 'lightbulb moments' including roasted chicken thighs with hot honey and lime, and blistered broccoli pasta with walnuts, pecorino and mint. Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was honeydew. Can you put eight historical events — including Einstein's theory of general relativity, the invention of the Ferris wheel, and the development of Chinese porcelain — in chronological order? Take this week's Flashback quiz. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. P.S. It's been nearly five years since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic. Do you travel differently now? Tell The Times how your habits have changed. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@
South China Morning Post
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
5 popular video game series that draw on Chinese culture
Long before Black Myth: Wukong made a splash at the 2024 Game Awards – the Oscars of the video games industry – in December, winning both the player's voice award and best action game, Chinese culture had served as an inspiration for the international gaming community. One could go as far back as the naming of Atari, one of the earliest video game makers, which was co-founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in 1972. According to author and journalist Harold Goldberg's 2011 book, All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture , Bushnell was a big fan of weiqi , a strategy board game originating in ancient China, because of how challenging it was to play. Inspired by the game – more popularly known by its Japanese name, Go – Bushnell named the company after one of the game's Japanese terms, atari . 'The definition is the equivalent of the word 'check' in chess, but also means 'you are about to become engulfed',' wrote Goldberg. A screenshot from Black Myth: Wukong, which is based on one of China's four great literary classics, Journey to the West. Photo: Game Science Games drawing from Chinese history, mythologies, pastimes and martial arts have often been especially popular ( Black Myth: Wukong is based on one of China's four great literary classics, Journey to the West ). Here are five series that gamers worldwide are perhaps most familiar with.
