Black Myth: Zhong Kui, the sequel to Game Science’s massively successful Black Myth: Wukong, will be made without generative AI. Game Science is a Chinese studio, per Destructoid’s coverage, and Wukong is the franchise’s first entry. Co-founder and art director Yang Qi said in a recently translated Chinese Q&A, surfaced by GamesRadar, that the studio plans to hold the line “until the end” of development.
The line that anchored the Q&A: Yang said “At a time when digital filmmaking and 3D post-production seem to have reached a dead end, look at Nolan… he’s thriving, using even older techniques to shake things up.” Game Science framed the no-AI stance as both an artistic choice and a learning one. Yang said the studio wants to keep developing the traditional craft of world-building rather than offload it to a model. Destructoid’s coverage notes that Game Science sees generative AI as something that “robs devs of the chance to actually learn how to create something cool and all the unexpected lessons that come with it.”
It is the most direct public statement yet from a major Chinese studio on AI tooling. Generative AI is the class of tools that produce images, text or 3D assets from a text prompt, and the question of whether to use it in production has split the industry. The Q&A is also the clearest signal yet that Game Science is in no hurry to ship. Yang said there is no release date because the team has “no rush.” Game Science has shown a brief teaser for the sequel. There is no word yet on a launch window or which platforms the game will target.
The stance lands as the wider industry has leaned in the opposite direction. Capcom has publicly embraced AI tooling, per Destructoid’s coverage, and several other big studios are integrating generative tools into at least some part of their pipelines. Players have repeatedly called out the resulting asset quality. The Destructoid piece frames Game Science’s stance as a deliberate counter to that trend. A major Chinese studio publicly picking a no-AI line and tying it to a creative philosophy is the kind of stance that tends to ripple through the discourse around big releases.
The “no rush” framing is also familiar from a very different kind of project. Squadron 42’s Steam page just opened for wishlisting, 14 years after Chris Roberts first announced the single-player campaign, and the full GTA 6 release is still holding for November 19 after years of waiting. Game Science is choosing the same posture on a sequel that already has a built-in audience, and the timing lands as US console sales hit new lows and the industry is openly debating what gets made and how.
Unique insight: the Nolan reference is the load-bearing part. Most no-AI commitments in the industry lean on labor or quality arguments. Game Science’s goes one further by pointing to a specific film (Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey) and a specific creative practice (older techniques, deliberate craft). That positions the studio as part of a global art-craft conversation, not a local industry debate, and it gives a hiring manager a recruiting line that “we don’t use AI” by itself does not. It also signals to players that the studio is willing to ship late rather than ship short.
Our read: “No rush” plus no-AI is a coherent posture from a studio that does not need to ship to keep the lights on. From a studio with that kind of runway, the stance reads as deliberate rather than defensive. Doubling down on craft is one of the few commitments a sequel can make that actually moves the needle. The story to watch now is whether other Chinese studios follow the lead or treat it as a Game Science quirk, and whether The Odyssey reference becomes a recruiting line for art talent or stays an internal philosophy.
Correction (October 10, 2026): We originally said Game Science is a Hangzhou-based studio and that Wukong launched in 2024; the source describes Game Science as a Chinese studio behind the massively successful Wukong without a launch year.
Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report
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