Everyone is waiting for Hollow Knight: Silksong to come out. It’s the most wishlisted game on Steam. You can’t watch a new gaming showcase these days without the chat being flooded with stuff like “Show Silksong? Where is Silksong? Silksong when?” Due out before the end of 2025, time is running out for a release date announcement or even a same-day shadow-drop. With Gamescom 2025 Opening Night Live just around the corner, could this finally be the moment of truth? Host Geoff Keighley is certainly acting like it.
Gaming’s veteran hype man has been sharing images of Gamescom ONL prep, including one of him in front of a mirror wearing a clown nose. It’s a clear wink to the Silksong fanart clown makeup meme about perpetual disappointment. The trend started years ago when developer Team Cherry was MIA, but hit a new fever pitch after Xbox claimed Silksong would arrive in 2022, only for it to never come out. Many gaming showcases have come and gone since, with the Metroidvanaia Soulslike only ever appearing briefly as part of a sizzle reel here and there.
First time? 🤡
See you tomorrow for @gamescom ONL. pic.twitter.com/59ef5sFysJ
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) August 18, 2025
Keighley is either tipping his hand that big Silksong news is just around the corner or paving the way for the biggest collective letdown ever. Since the game will be playable at multiple booths on the Gamescom show floor, my money’s on the former. It’s coming to Switch but has also been promised to be available day-one on the Xbox Ally PC gaming handheld, rumored to release in October. Plus, the soundtrack was just added to the backend of GOG.
Keighley’s showcase will take place on August 19, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. ET. It will run approximately two hours with a pre-show that starts at 1:30 p.m. ET. You can stream it live on both YouTube and Twitch. The event tends to have new game announcements sprinkled in with trailers and updates on already revealed games coming out in the next few months, plus occasionally brief intros from the developers themselves. This year’s Gamescom ONL will also include a live orchestra performance of music from surprise hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the first footage of Fallout season 2.
What games will be shown at Gamescom ONL?
Beyond the tease for Silksong, Keighley has already confirmed the following nine games will also make an appearance:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
- Resident Evil Requiem
- Ghost of Yotei
- Ninja Gaiden 4
- The Outer Worlds 2
- Silent Hill f
- World of Warcraft: Midnight
- Black Myth: Wukong
- Lords of the Fallen 2
Black Ops 7 is expected to reveal the first footage from its updated multiplayer, while Black Myth: Wukong is headed to Xbox this week and could potentially be showing off its long-rumored DLC expansion. With no BlizzCon this year, Microsoft will also be using ONL to debut the next World of Warcraft expansion, though a much bigger deal would be if it ever gets a much-requested console port. And what about Diablo 4‘s recently leaked Paladin subclass, rumored to be part of its next expansion? The Outer Worlds 2 is Microsoft’s other big fall release, but with few updates on its biggest in-development games at its Xbox showcase in June, there are plenty of other big releases that could make surprise appearances at ONL.
We haven’t heard much from Ubisoft this year either. Amid big delays and internal restructurings, the French publisher declined to hold its usual Summer Game Fest-adjacent June showcase. With the next Far Cry, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell remakes all in development, any one of them could get a tease at Gamescom. The developers behind The Division 2 have already teased news on the ongoing loot shooter’s big winter update. Who knows, maybe Gamescom 2025 is when Beyond Good and Evil 2 will finally resurface!