Did Black Myth: Wukong Deserved Game of the Year Award?

The Game Awards 2024 ended last week, and it was probably one of the best shows, according to many.  Astro Bot and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth have both been nominated seven times for different categories, where Astro Bot scooped up four awards, including Game of the Year. While Team ASOBI was delighted with how their game performed, Game Science, on the other hand, was quite the opposite.

While most studios seemed surprisingly pleased with Jeff Keeley's latest The Game Awards show, it appears at least one executive took home sour grapes in place of a hoped-for statue. And guess who! Game Science's CEO believed Black Myth: Wukong deserved Astro Bot's Game of the Year award.

Game Science CEO and Black Myth Wukong producer Feng Ji went on an epic extended screed on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, declaring, "I came to the game awards for nothing as well as taking umbrage with the allegedly wishy-washy criteria for how Game of the Year is selected.

It is also worth remembering that Black Myth: Wukong was nominated in five categories and won the Players' Voice and Best Action Game awards, which are more recognition than most games will usually receive. Feng Ji needs clarification on how the game awards handled its selection process for the game of the year category and regrets not getting his chance to speak on stage, as he claims to have written his victory speech two years ago.

By inviting in the power of the Players Choice Awards, Ji said, "I have also seen strong dissatisfaction, unwillingness, and unhappiness in comments from many players, most of them expressed in a humorous and deconstructive way, which is hilarious." Ji says Black Myth: Wukong's undeniable commercial success was part of the plan, the inevitable result of the studio's culture. Quoting some people, "A team has achieved such results with its first standalone game is a small probability, an accident, and it is difficult to copy in the future."

We understand such emotion when their desired game doesn't win something they had hoped for. But it's not the end for Game Science. They can still come up with Black Myth: Wukong 2 in 2025 and try to win the awards. Their emotion suggests that perhaps the developers had their expectations a little too high, and it detracted them from the spirit of good sportsmanship and camaraderie these events are supposed to bring out.

It's making the rounds right now, and it's abundantly clear that the CEO of Game Science was very upset that Black Myth: Wukong did not win Game of the Year. It does seem like there are some poor sports about it; we don't think it's a good look. We understand the emotion behind it, of course: being super passionate about his or her game and wanting to take it all the way and get to the top.

But at the end of the day, Black Myth: Wukong did win because it got over 20 million in sales. It is one of the biggest games of the year; the studio has garnered a tremendous amount of respect and a whole new fan base. It won the Player's Voice Award, and it won Best Action Game. Above all, the game won the hearts of gamers. We all loved it, and we want Game Science to come up with more and more games like this in the coming days.