The industry’s most elusive game, Hollow Knight: Silksong, is not only going to appear at Microsoft’s booth at this year’s massive Gamescom gaming show, but also be playable for the public. Which is by far the strongest sign this game actually exists we’ve had in years.
Silksong has become something of a gaming punchline in recent years, after developers Team Cherry has spent six years not telling anyone what’s going on. Every Nintendo Direct or Xbox Games Showcase, rumors start to swirl that this time—this time—the game is going to appear, and we’ll see it moving, and there will be a release date. And none of that ever happens. One of my favorite ever headlines on Kotaku was this one from Willa after it didn’t show in April 2024's Direct: Silksong Fans Won’t Survive Another Round of Disappointment.
Then today, looking through the impossible avalanche of industry emails that pour in, I noticed Microsoft had sent over its itinerary for this year’s Gamescom. Germany’s Gamescom is the biggest gaming show in the world, and every August features its own Geoff Keighley-hosted night of trailers during which Silksong also doesn’t appear. But what’s this? Hidden in the list of games Microsoft will have playable in its booths at this year’s event, tucked between Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and Borderlands 4...it’s Hollow Knight: Silksong.
In fact, the email even specifies, “This includes the first ever public opportunity to go hands on with the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, including a new playable demo for Hollow Knight: Silksong.”
Rumors spread earlier this year that there might be some sort of strange deal between the ROG Xbox Ally and Silksong, after the logo for the game appeared in the launch trailer for the handheld console.
However, Team Cherry’s Matthew “Leth” Griffin then jumped on the game’s Discord to confirm a previous vague suggestion the game would come out before Christmas 2025, and to add “we are not tied to a console release.”
Still, this Gamescom tie-in suggests there’s something going on there. Could it turn out to be pre-loaded on the ROG Xbox Ally, as well as being sold separately elsewhere? It’d sure be a cool incentive.
But more importantly, it seems Silksong actually exists so much that there’s at the very least a playable demo of the game. You just need to head to Germany next month to see it to believe it.
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