DF Weekly: If Black Myth: Wukong has issues on PS5, is a Series S port viable?

Another gigantic DF Direct Weekly arrives today (well, on Saturday if you’re signed up to the DF Supporter Program) and amongst topics as diverse as the latest PS5 Pro rumours and Tom Morgan’s impressions of MGS Delta and the Silent Hill 2 remake, we have our own thoughts on the Black Myth: Wukong Xbox drama. Why hasn’t it appeared on Microsoft’s consoles? Is there really some kind of PlayStation exclusivity deal? Is Series S the problem? Should we take developer statements about ongoing optimisation at face value? And what about the recent ‘memory leak’ story – can this really have put the Xbox version on indefinite hold (spoilers: no).

News journalists with good track records have corroborated the Sony exclusivity angle (and to be clear, we’ve heard the same ourselves from sources with good knowledge of the situation) and the fact that Microsoft itself heavily hinted at such a deal being in place adds extra weight – all PR statements have some degree of legal vetting before they’re put out there. That said, audience reaction has quite rightfully pointed out that if there is a PlayStation deal in place, Sony is keeping awfully quiet about it. Well, the truth is that exclusivity deals can take many shapes and forms, and don’t necessarily need to include marketing.

Even so, there may well be the case that Game Science did/does require more time to get an Xbox version into shape. Back in June, a statement said, “We are currently optimising the Xbox Series X|S version to meet our quality standards, so it won’t release simultaneously with the other platforms. We apologise for the delay and aim to minimise the wait for Xbox users. We will announce the release date as soon as it meets our quality standards.”

• 0:01:07 News 1: PS5 Pro name, design possibly leaked
• 0:27:16 News 2: Why isn’t Black Myth: Wukong on Xbox?
• 0:41:24 News 3: Astro Bot VR ruled out – but PC could be coming
• 0:49:53 News 4: MGS Delta: Snake Eater preview!
• 1:06:53 News 5: Silent Hill 2 hands-on!
• 1:26:24 News 6: Avowed vows to target 30fps on Xbox Series consoles
• 1:34:48 Supporter Q1: What games do you most want to see updated for PS5 Pro?
• 1:41:36 Supporter Q2: How will Microsoft deal with the PS5 Pro?
• 1:52:24 Supporter Q3: Could Intel GPUs be in the next-gen consoles?
• 1:56:35 Supporter Q4: Given that the 4090 can no longer sustain native 4K at max settings in a lot of games, are we about to hit a performance wall?
• 2:04:28 Supporter Q5: Did Sony and Microsoft underestimate the needed console specs this generation?
• 2:12:19 Supporter Q6: Would DF consider adding a quantitative rating system to their reviews?

There’s definitely the sense that Game Science had some issues working on its first triple-A console title. For starters, the PlayStation 5 version has technical issues and also some poor decisions in terms of presentation. A 30fps quality mode runs with an unlocked frame-rate, adding needless judder. An intermediate ‘balance’ mode caps at 45fps, meaning there is no PS5-compatible display in the world that will give smooth, consistent performance. And finally, the 60fps performance mode uses FSR 3 frame generation to increase frame-rate at the expense of responsiveness and easily noticeable artefacts. The chances are an Xbox Series X version would have turned out much the same, while Xbox Series S would have been an altogether more challenging prospect.

To get an idea of what Series S could do, I broke out our Frankenstein’s PC (which features an actual Series X CPU combined with a PS5-like RX 6700 GPU) and ran the Windows version of Black Myth: Wukong at matched settings. The result? Interestingly, the PC port runs around six percent slower when usually the RX 6700 runs five percent or so faster than the PS5. This gives us some idea of the differential between PS5 and equivalent PC performance. Then I swapped the RX 6700 for the RX 5500 XT. This GPU has the same memory bandwidth as the Series S, but two extra compute units. To get a matching 4TF, clocks need to reduce to 1420MHz.

My take on the PS5 version is that Game Science really didn’t want to cut back too much on its visual settings. It’s essentially running at high settings across the board, albeit with texture quality that’s surprisingly low – a low/medium hybrid. Take that mentality across to the RX 5500 XT and there are problems, even at 1080p resolution, upscaled from 720p. Black Myth: Wukong’s visual effects and vegetation density can challenge the PS5 and on Series S-equivalent hardware, even a stable 30 frames per second is challenging to achieve.

I eventually got some level of stability by retaining the same resolution but dropping quality settings down to medium, again targeting 30 frames per second. And if the PC version does run a little slower than console equivalents, an extra boost could take it over the line. Based on what I saw at medium settings, the game looks OK and obviously, it’s still recognisably Black Myth: Wukong, but it’s clearly compromised. The alternative to dropping settings would be to lower resolution – but looking at early UE5 titles like Immortals of Aveum, I’m not sure that’s a good idea for a game built on delivering intricate detail.

However, while the RX 5500 XT gives us some idea of how a Series S-class GPU could run the game, that’s just one part of the picture. Black Myth: Wukong is an Unreal Engine 5.0 title, bereft of the latest optimisations that Epic has added to an engine that’s now in a 5.4 iteration. Developers have told us that in early UE5 development, memory management on Series S is challenging. Ultimately though, a range of early UE5 titles did ship on Xbox Series S, most of which turned out just fine – albeit running at low internal resolutions.

Ultimately then, there’s every chance that there’s more than one reason why Black Myth: Wukong didn’t launch on Xbox consoles at the same time as PlayStation 5 – and bearing in mind that the PS5 code has issues, a delayed Xbox version may reap the benefits of the extra time. But the memory leak story? This emerged during Gamescom, suggesting that the Xbox version was indefinitely delayed because of a… memory leak? It’s hard to believe that a problem like this would indefinitely delay a game, especially when both Sony and Microsoft have technical staff on hand to assist developers.

This is just one story in a new episode of DF Direct Weekly that’s almost 140 minutes long! We discuss the latest PS5 Pro rumours and leaks, Tom shares his thoughts on MGS Delta and the Silent Hill 2 remake, while – guess what – we’re absolutely fine with Avowed on consoles running at 30fps. On the latter point, the deeper we move into the generation, the more developers are going to want to push the consoles and there are clear limitations in doing so. Regardless, I hope you enjoy the Direct!