Development troubles and internal drama surrounding Sony Interactive Entertainment and Ultizero Games’ action role-playing game, Lost Soul Aside, have allegedly hurt the game’s reputation in China ahead of its release.
After nearly a decade in development, Lost Soul Aside was released on August 29, 2025, and the game’s reputation within its home country of China has been overshadowed by controversy stemming from both development challenges and damaging internal drama.
The controversy arose earlier this year when leaked private chat logs from a former developer (thanks, Reset Era forums member Ceerious) began to spread online. These logs contained troubling comments that quickly went viral in Chinese gaming circles. In one exchange, the former developer boasted, “This project can only be completed thanks to Yang Bing [Lost Soul Aside director/producer] and me,” dismissing the contributions of others. Far more serious was the use of a slur and the claim that “when you lose one unit of sale from yellow people, you will receive ten units of sale from black people.” Another message accused Sony of forcing political correctness during a studio visit.
The authenticity of these leaks was not disputed by Lost Soul Aside director/producer Yang Bing, who promptly issued a public apology. He admitted his own failings in leadership, acknowledged that the remarks had caused harm, and stressed that the employee in question had already been dismissed last year.
The incident undoubtedly reinforced skepticism about the project’s troubled production among Chinese fans. Despite Bing’s apology, the goodwill that once surrounded Lost Soul Aside doesn’t seem to have fully recovered in its home market, as is evident. Two days after launch, the game only managed to achieve an all-time concurrent player count of 3,070 on Steam, falling well short of Game Science’s successful Black Myth: Wukong, which peaked at over 2.4 million players.
Lost Soul Aside is available for PlayStation 5 and Windows PC.
