Game Science CEO Feng Ji questioned the selection process for The Game Awards and said his trip to Los Angeles was “for nothing” after Astrobot beat Black Myth: Wukong to the Game of the Year crown.
Wukong was nominated for four major honors at The Game Awards: Best Action Game, Best Art Direction, and Best Game Direction alongside the Game of the Year title, taking home the awards for Best Action Game and the Player’s Voice vote, but Feng Ji was clearly unhappy with the outcome—revealing he wrote his acceptance speech for the Game of the Year award “two years ago.”
In a lengthy post on Chinese social media platform Weibo, Feng Ji admitted “disappointments and regrets” following The Game Awards, adding that he doesn’t “understand the selection criteria for Game of the Year.”
Feng Ji commented on the discourse from some members of the gaming community with the result, stating, “It’s normal to be a little angry when you are so confident but not recognized by others” and that he was “more confident” than most and his “speech for [the Game of the Year award] was written two years ago.”
The rest of the post spoke about Feng Ji’s confidence of Game Science and other Chinese developers achieving global success with games after Wukong set records and firmly established itself in the Western market, but the eye-catching complaints will not sit well for many.
Every game nominated in The Game Awards was deserving for different reasons, and Astrobot’s success is not a slight towards any of the other nominated games—and it says a lot that there have been no such complaints from others who were not victorious.
Unfortunately, it’s further evidence of the discourse within the gaming community right now and the sections of players who insist on being up in arms about everything, describing games as “woke” when they don’t align with their views and complaining that diversity is a problem when it’s the exact opposite.
It’s a shame that Feng Ji has added further fuel to the fire for those who are unhappy with The Game Awards results but just because Astrobot won doesn’t mean that Wukong is not a good game—although these comments may lead to some steering clear.
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