Over the past weekend, there was a nasty rumor that S-Game, the studio behind the upcoming hack-and-slash title that draws from Soulslikes for inspiration, Phantom Blade Zero, had dismissed the Xbox due to the “Nobody needs Xbox” comment from an unnamed developer at the company. This stemmed from a conversation that did or didn’t happen or could have been mistranslated during the 2024 China Joy gaming event, which was used in several articles on various outlets that didn’t bother to source the comment.
It’s kind of weird that we’d spread information from some unknown developer, or possibly a mistranslation, I’m happy to see the official Phantom Blade Zero Twitter (don’t call it X) account pushed back, stating this wasn’t true at all. In the tweet, S-Game mentioned the following;
Recently, we noticed that some media outlets have claimed to have interviewed an unnamed developer from S-GAME at Chinajoy, who seems to have made some statements regarding the release platforms and strategy for Phantom Blade Zero.
We want to clarify that these claimed statements do not represent S-GAME’s values or culture, as we believe in making our game accessible to everyone and have not ruled out any platforms for Phantom Blade Zero. We are hard at work on both the development and publishing fronts to ensure that as many players as possible can enjoy our game at release and in the future.
Our team is looking forward to sharing more development updates soon, and we are excited to bring our world premiere demo to Gamescom this month!
While I’m glad that S-Game made this comment and solidified what I have been telling people in the echo chamber that is Twitter, and several websites, I feel the damage has been done. Xbox isn’t in the best position right now, and the decisions made by the company haven’t instilled confidence in many gamers. Still, this doesn’t give anyone the right to do what they did, only to pour fuel on the ongoing and quite stupid console wars fire. Or in other spaces, having Xbox fans feeling scoured, suddenly dunking on a game that they had much interest in.
We all know the Asian market doesn’t like the Xbox. It never has, and for that matter, hasn’t been a fan of any American-created gaming platform. Just take a look back at history and you’ll see that for yourself. But this isn’t about that. This is about people taking something and running with it, without sourcing it just to fish for some clicks and traffic. This is what people have stated that they have begun or have hated gaming journalism for. Yet, we have websites and personalities continuing to do this, to make a name for themselves, only to do more harm than good.
As for some actual game journalism reporting, I spoke with the S-Game team during the 2024 Summer Game Fest and I did ask about an Xbox version, to which I was told that the PlayStation 5 and PC are the priority right now. S-Game didn’t dismiss the Xbox, but more than likely wants to gauge how well the game does on the platforms that the game is being developed on. As you can see, that’s not a yes or a no on whether Phantom Blade Zero will pop up on the Xbox platform. Only time will tell.
As for Phantom Blade Zero, I did a write-up on my hands-on experience from the Summer Game Fest. So give that a read if you’re curious about what I thought about the game.
