Black Myth: Wukong devs were ‘crying’ after losing at The Game Awards 2024

Did it deserve more than two awards? (Game Science)

Astro Bot’s win at The Game Awards came as a big surprise to the creators of Black Myth: Wukong, with the developer’s CEO sharing a lengthy statement.

While you might have missed them between all the trailers and adverts, there were actually some awards handed out at The Game Awards 2024.

The big Game Of The Year prize went to Astro Bot, which beat Balatro, Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Black Myth: Wukong to take the award.

Astro Bot’s win prompted one of the best speeches of the night from Team Asobi director Nicolas Doucet, where he graciously toasted Nintendo, but it seems like one studio was rather sour over the game’s win.

In a post on Chinese social media site Weibo, following The Game Awards, Game Science CEO Feng Ji shared a lengthy statement (as translated on Reddit) where he said there was a ‘sense of loss and regret’, despite Black Myth: Wukong winning both Best Action Game and Players’ Voice.

While he noted that winning the latter ‘was gratifying’, Ji appeared to question the criteria required to win Game Of The Year. ‘The games nominated this year were all exceptional, but honestly, I still can’t figure out what the criteria were for Game Of The Year,’ he wrote in the translated post. ‘I feel like I came all the way here for nothing!’

He went onto admit that he had written his Game Of The Year acceptance speech two years ago, ‘only to never get the chance to deliver it’.

Astro Bot screenshot — Astro Bot was a worthy winner (Sony Interactive Entertainment)

He added: ‘Since last night, I’ve seen a lot of strong dissatisfaction and frustration in players’ comments – often expressed humorously or ironically, which made me laugh.

‘I completely understand these feelings and share the frustration, because behind these emotions lies not pain or malice, but dignity and confidence. When you’re so confident and yet don’t receive the recognition you expected, it’s natural to feel upset.’

While there’s a chance the tone of Ji’s comments may have been misconstrued in translation, it appears as if he isn’t the only one from developer Game Science who was, at the very least, surprised and upset, after Black Myth: Wukong lost the award.

In a clip which has circulated on X, Alanah Pearce, a former writer at Sony Santa Monica who was at the event, claimed she saw members of the Black Myth: Wukong team ‘crying when Astro Bot got Game Of The Year’.

‘It’s definitely unusual,’ she said. ‘Clearly it meant a lot to them, they did an amazing thing, but I did find that surprising.’

When asked if it was celebratory cry, Pearce replied: ‘No, they were upset. Definitely upset that they didn’t win. Which is also fair, but it was still surprising.’

GameCentral has reached out to Game Science for comment.

Black Myth: Wukong is the first major release from Chinese developer Game Science. The game sold 20 million copies within its first month on sale, and it went onto win Game Of The Year at the Golden Joysticks 2024 – which unlike The Game Awards is voted on purely by the public.

Aside from Astro Bot, the other big winners at The Game Awards were Metaphor ReFantazio, Balatro, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.