GameScience, the developer of Black Myth: Wukong, did not comment on the controversy surrounding its founders' past sexist comments.

Black Myth: Wukong set the second highest peak player record in Steam history. This was a spectacular launch of the Chinese action-RPG that placed it at the top global top sellers list. In our 87% review, we called it a "mythical action RPG" with "remarkably bizarre characters and challenging boss battles." Black Myth Wukong's launch should be a celebration, but instead it has been marred by controversy, which GameScience refuses to address in recent interviews with PC Gamer.

Before the release of Black Myth, streamer guidelines were leaked. They revealed a list "don'ts", including "feminist propagandizing, fetishization and other content which instigates a negative discourse", as well as "content relating to China's gaming industry policies, opinions, or news." These restrictions were imposed by co-publisher Hero Games, and not shared with PC Gamer. The Streisand Effect never fails. Streamers and other media outlets immediately began talking about the topics that they were forbidden to discuss.

It's impossible to not see those streamer guides as an extension of crude and sexist remarks made by GameScience founders. This was reported in a widely-shared IGN report about how the studio's history of sexism "is complicating its westward journey."

GameScience has been largely avoiding interviews (at the very least with western media) since the early stages of Black Myth's creation. However, I spoke to a representative from the studio late in July to discuss the adaptation of Journey to the West that the studio created for PC Gamer magazine. During my interview, I asked the representative - who asked to be credited by studio rather than name - if they could address details in the report.

Game Science, via a translator, said "We have nothing to say. We're sorry." "We are only interested in answering questions about the game and gameplay."

It was a frustrating response, given that we had spent a large part of the interview discussing the studio’s growth, from a small group to one capable of taking on a AAA singleplayer title, and the GameScience founding team’s first attempt at adapting Journey to the West for a previous MMO. The conversation was not limited to the details of gameplay. The "no comment," however, was the same answer that GameScience gave to The Guardian in July during a hands on preview.

I asked again, since we were discussing the difficulties of finding staff for a game of such ambition - that initial wowser reveal trailer was designed in part to help recruit new talents - if the controversy or repeated questions had affected staff or led to internal changes at GameScience. The response was again "no comment."

I don't understand if GameScience's leaders believe that there is nothing wrong with their past sexually suggestive recruiting posters or if they think that responding to the issue will only cause more problems. Do they still hold the same opinions as co-founder Yang Qi, who posted on Weibo in 2013 that games men and women like are determined by "biological conditions"?

According to IGN, he wrote: "When you held a heavy machinegun and shot at governments in your dream, what the women are dreaming of are bags that would be jealous of their friends."

If GameScience does not stand behind this type of questionable past behavior, why don't they apologize by saying that they have matured over the years? This is a simple way out that has been used by a thousand celebrities and businesspeople in the past, whether they were sincere or not. GameScience has decided not to take the bait.

There may be delicate domestic reasons why GameScience would not comment, such as the risk of offending the regulatory bodies that tightly regulate China's videogame industry. (One complicating aspect, for example is an alleged photograph of Qi slapping the former Chinese president Mao Zedong as reported by Yahoo! News). News) But that's just pure speculation.

It's hard to not read the silence of GameScience as a sign it feels it has no reason to apologize. The nearly 130,000 positive Steam reviews, with 96% being positive, show that the studio's silence had little impact.