New ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ Videos Drop Amidst Persistent Misogyny Rumors

Want to fight against demon spiders and face an ominous mother figure as an omnipotent monkey? Then you’ll be excited by the latest trailers for the role-playing video game Black Myth: Wukong, which Chinese game developer Game Science Studio released on August 20.

As hardcore fans of Game Science Studio should know, the company has dropped teasers for the highly-anticipated game every August over the past two years and has repeated the trend this year.

The two trailers released this year include a six-minute cutscene and an eight-minute gameplay video.

The latter shows off two things: 1) tech giant Nvidia’s innovative DLSS software, which allows for smooth, action-filled visuals, and 2) improvements like fewer frame-rate drops and badass new monsters.

Black Myth: Wukong is based on the Ming Dynasty novel Journey to the West and one of its heroes, Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King. In the game, Wukong has to travel through what developers have described as an “Eastern fantasy world” and complete 81 mystery challenges.

The developers aim to portray the entire universe of Journey to the West in vivid detail and through third-person combat and mysterious dialogue.

Gamers worldwide have been awaiting the release of Black Myth: Wukong for years. An official release date has yet to be announced, but Game Science Studio said it hopes to release the game by 2023.

Despite the hype surrounding the game, some netizens have called for a boycott of Black Myth: Wukong due to alleged misogyny from some of the game’s developers. News of the alleged behavior first surfaced back in 2020.

“We don’t need female players,” one such developer by the name of Yang Qi is quoted as stating, and screenshots of his words have circulated on Twitter (read the tweet thread below) and Weibo.

Another contentious point among netizens is the team’s recruitment ads, one of which (shown below) features a set of barbells covering a drawing of female breasts. The Mandarin caption translates to, “Fuck off, fatty.”

Nonetheless, some gamers have defended the developers, claiming that the accusations are nothing more than rumors.

And some simply don’t care. One user tweeted, “I don’t give a damn if [the allegations] are true or not; I wanna play as a badass monkey who will wreck shit up.”

Cover image via Gamerbraves