Wukong Developer Critizes The Game Awards

This past Thursday’s The Game Awards was an exciting night for the industry, with major announcements for upcoming games by Naughty Dog, a new Elden Ring spin-off, the next entry in The Witcher franchise, and more.

While Black Myth: Wukong took home several awards, including Players’ Voice, it did not take the big prize of the night: Game of the Year. That went to the PlayStation 5 platformer Astro Bot in a surprise win. Many were thrilled with Astro Bot‘s win, as most people expected Metaphor: ReFantazio or Black Myth: Wukong to take home the night’s top prize. If anything, people expected Balatro to be the game to take home the award in an upset.

No one may be more upset than Game Science CEO Feng Ji, who posted his thoughts on the night on the Chinese social media site Weibo. Ji admits that all this year’s nominees were excellent titles but feels he came to the event for nothing. While he’s happy that Black Myth: Wukong took home prizes for Best Action Game and Players’ Voice, he was upset that the game didn’t win Game of the Year.

The past ten years of The Game Awards have seen a wide variety of games take home the night’s top prize, including It Takes Two surprising fans in 2021. This isn’t about whether or not Black Myth: Wukong is worthy, as there were a lot of great games this year. Sadly, only one title can win.

Ji talks more in-depth about his feelings on failing to win Game of the Year, but we included a snippet of his thoughts, translated below.

This awards ceremony coincided with the release of a relatively large update. For me personally, this project that took seven years has officially come to an end.

The four nominations for Black Myth: Wukong (Best Action Game, Best Art Direction, Best Game Direction, and Game of the Year) are all the first in China. In the end, it won the Best Action and Player’s Voice, especially the Player’s Voice, which is gratifying.

But I must admit that there are disappointments and regrets, and more of them are giving up illusions.

The games nominated this year are all excellent, but I really don’t understand the selection criteria for this year’s Game of the Year. I came here for nothing!

From yesterday to now, I have also seen strong dissatisfaction, unwillingness and unhappiness in the comments of many players – most of them expressed in a humorous and deconstructive way, which is hilarious.

I can fully understand these unwillingness and sympathize with these unhappiness, because I know that behind these emotions, it is not pain and malice, but self-esteem and self-confidence.

It’s normal to be a little angry when you are so confident but not recognized by others.

I am actually… more confident than you (refer to my first answer on Zhihu). The speech for the annual game was written two years ago, but it was not used.

During the development of this game, many colleagues were not as optimistic as I was. They may have played too many intermediate versions, so they inevitably felt that this game still had too many flaws and it was unlikely to be launched on time.

One of my main jobs in the company is to constantly comfort them that we have done a good job and the product has been improving.

Yes, you can’t be confident only when you have won.

That is not confidence, but a repetition of the result.

If you lose today, you may lose tomorrow, but so what?

The factors that affect the result are too complex, so the result must be uncertain. The only thing we can be sure of is to choose what we are doing –

do specific things, do difficult things, and do things we believe in.

Chinese gamers have taken to reviewing Baldur’s Gate 3 simply because Larian CEO Swen Vincke announced the award following the Game‘s win last year. Some reviews specifically mention The Game Awards, saying, “TGA is a wild chicken.” Other reviews, translated from Chinese, say, “This is a classic statement,” which is nothing of actual substance.