‘Black Myth: Wukong’ devs’ anti-‘feminist propaganda’ warning backfires

Let’s give it up for one of the most misogynist gaming companies in existence: Game Science, creators of hit game Black Myth: Wukong. Recently, they’ve waged a crusade against feminism and have attempted to censor streamers of their game.

So, where did one of the year’s biggest gaming controversies begin? As reported by IGN, it all started with some extreme misogyny at Wukong’s studio Game Science. If you aren’t familiar already, Black Myth: Wukong is an action RPG game featuring one of East Asia’s most popular and enduring fictional characters, Sun Wukong, who comes from the Chinese novel Journey to the West, written in the 16th century. This story is incredibly famous and has had major influences on popular media like Dragon Ball and One Piece.

Content warning: sexual harassment and misogyny.

Stories about Game Science’s long history of misogyny and workplace abuse started popping up back in 2023 in the West. As we’ve covered in depth before, the company had been putting up sexist recruitment ads as far back as 2015. Many of these posters said crude misogynist things about women, along with disgusting fatphobia and so on. Here’s a quote from the IGN report below:

In one poster, a risque illustration that resembles the artwork of Austrian artist Egon Schiele is accompanied by a header that says “Mandatory self-pleasure”. In another poster that featured the rear view of a woman, the ad reads, “Don’t screw your colleagues”. In the same ad, friends with benefits were also implied as an office perk. And a third poster, featuring a dumbbell, is far more pointed, with the ad stating that “fatties should f*** off.”

This controversy continued well into Wukong’s launch on August 20, 2024. According to Inverse, Game Science told game streamers who received keys for the game not to talk about controversial topics when streaming the game, such as “covid-19” and “feminist propaganda.” It’s not hard to see why they included feminism here, given that the huge controversy surrounding their sexist past has been in gaming news for a hot minute.

A few streamers have criticized this move by the company and are refusing to stream the game at all due to the censorship, and if anything, the warning has rekindled the conversation around the developer’s misogyny, rather than stopped it. Game Science is an absolutely disgusting game developer worthy of boycott and ridicule. While the “covid-19” part is somewhat understandable, as sinophobia is pretty big around COVID-19 Wuhan lab myths that figures like Donald Trump helped popularize, there is no excuse for the way this company has treated women, past and present.

We cannot and should not tolerate injustice just because their game might be well-made and enjoyable. It’s one thing to buy and play Black Myth: Wukong (not recommended in my opinion); it’s another to stand by quietly and say nothing of the evil being done to women in the gaming industry.