Needle-sharp and finally real: Hollow Knight: Silksong is stepping out of the shadows and onto the show floor, six years and several memes later.
It’s finally happening! After years of teases, trailers, and wishlist dreams, Hollow Knight: Silksong is going hands-on. Xbox is bringing the long-awaited indie sequel to Gamescom 2025, where it will be playable for the very first time on the show floor in Cologne.
It’s the biggest step forward yet for the needle-sharp Metroidvania, with developer Team Cherry recently confirming a late 2025 release window.
For fans who have charted every scrap of news, from surprise Steam updates to showcase cameos, this public demo is the moment Silksong stops feeling like a dream and starts feeling real.
It’s been over six years since Silksong was first announced in 2019. As the long-awaited follow-up to the critically-acclaimed Hollow Knight, it introduces a new protagonist, expansive biomes, and a vertical climb through a fallen kingdom full of secrets. Over time, as updates thinned out, the game took on near-mythic status: part sequel, part running joke, with its absence becoming a meme of its own. But 2025 has shifted momentum for the title.
Team Cherry has shown more signs of life in recent months than in the last several years combined. In January, co-director William Pellen shared a seemingly harmless photo of a chocolate cake, which fans quickly tied to the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal. Sure enough, Silksong appeared in April’s Nintendo Direct with a 2025 release window. It was later mentioned in an Xbox Wire blog post alongside games with confirmed launch dates, and in May, Team Cherry announced a playable demo at an Australian museum this September.
Most recently, the game resurfaced during an Xbox Games Showcase with a new trailer tied to the reveal of the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X handhelds. Xbox president Sarah Bond confirmed that Silksong will be playable at the launch of both devices this holiday season. And with a Gamescom demo now locked in, it finally feels like Silksong is on track to land before the year is out.
What to expect at the Xbox booth beyond Silksong
Alongside Silksong, Xbox’s booth at Hall 7 of Gamescom will be packed with hands-on demos, including the debut of the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X handhelds, plus first playable showings of Ninja Gaiden 4, Grounded 2, and a new city update for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. The Outer Worlds 2 will be shown through a theatre presentation, while Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be playable in its base form. Third-party titles like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Borderlands 4, and the Xbox versions of Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade round out a stacked line-up. The signs are all there: new trailers, confirmed demos, and not one, but two platform holders backing a 2025 launch. It’s finally starting to feel like the real thing.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is set to launch across multiple platforms, including Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC. It will also be available through Xbox Game Pass on release day.
