Silksong Gamescom Demo Confirmed for 2025

The Hollow Knight: Silksong demo will be available to play at the Xbox booth during Gamescom 2025. Continue reading for details about Silksong's inaugural public demo and the game's long and suspenseful development journey.

Xbox Booth at Gamescom 2025 to Showcase Silksong and Other High-Profile Games

Silksong Demo Available on PC and ROG Xbox Ally X

Hollow Knight: Silksong will have its first-ever playable demo at Gamescom 2025. In a July 28 article on Xbox Wire, Microsoft confirmed that Silksong will be a featured attraction at the Xbox Booth from August 20-24 at Gamescom 2025 in Cologne, Germany.

The demo will be playable on PC and on Xbox's forthcoming handheld device, developed in partnership with Asus ROG, the ROG Xbox Ally X. This new portable system was first announced during the Xbox Games Show at Summer Game Fest 2025, where it was confirmed that Silksong would be playable on the device.

The ROG Xbox Ally X runs the Xbox dashboard, giving users access to titles from Game Pass, Steam, the Epic Games Store, Battle.net, and other platforms. It is scheduled to launch during the 2025 holiday season, aligning with the expected release of one of the most eagerly awaited games, Silksong.

Xbox has not yet disclosed how much game content the demo will include, but fans are simply relieved to see Silksong gaining momentum and moving closer to its eventual release.

The Long Road to Release

The year 2025 has been packed with teasers and hopeful anticipation for Hollow Knight enthusiasts. It started on January 15, when William Pellen, one of the game's co-creators, tweeted that "something big is coming." This message coincided with Nintendo's Switch 2 announcement, fueling theories that Silksong would be featured in the Switch 2 Direct event in April 2025.

Then, on January 18, Team Cherry’s Head of Marketing and Publishing, Matthew "Leth" Griffin, responded to a fan on X (formerly Twitter), assuring them that Silksong is "real, in development, and will be released." As the months went by, the Silksong community grew increasingly eager for any news about the sequel.

Hope was partially restored—but speculation intensified—when Silksong's Steam metadata was updated, changing Team Cherry's copyright date from 2019 to 2025. This gave fans reason to believe that the developers would soon share new information or at least appear during the Switch 2 Direct.

Silksong did make a brief appearance in Nintendo's online Switch 2 showcase, though it was only on screen for a moment. This short glimpse did confirm a 2025 launch window for the Switch 2 version, though no specific date was given. Some fans worried this might mean the game would skip the original Switch, but Team Cherry later confirmed that Silksong is still planned for release on the original console.

One month after its brief appearance in the Switch 2 Direct, Australia’s National Museum of Screen Culture (ACMI) announced on May 2 that a Silksong demo would be playable at the Game Worlds video game exhibition, starting September 18, 2025. Many speculated this could be a clue to the game's release timing, though Team Cherry has not verified this.

Meanwhile, in the period leading up to the Switch 2's launch, Silksong received another update to its Steam backend data. This time, the developers refreshed their Steam package, which had not been modified in 15 months. As expected, the Silksong community quickly began theorizing, with many concluding that the game might receive a surprise release alongside the Switch 2.

That did not happen, but Silksong still had a notable presence during Summer Game Fest 2025. As one of the most anticipated games in years, fans expected Silksong to have a major announcement or a dedicated segment at one of the year's biggest gaming events.

Instead, the game received only a brief mention during the premiere reveal for Deadpool VR. In a classic fourth-wall-breaking moment, Deadpool quipped, "You’re going to do me a solid and skip that Silksong trailer, so you can pimp my revolutionary VR game adventure that will shock the industry, probably." Team Cherry later stated they were unaware of the reference and were surprised another game would use its limited airtime to mention Silksong.

Even though it was only briefly referenced during the main Summer Game Fest show, Silksong was later highlighted in the Xbox Games Show that same weekend. Xbox announced its collaboration with Asus ROG to produce the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, scheduled for release in the 2025 holiday season.

During the presentation, Xbox President Sarah Bond stated, "The highly anticipated Hollow Knight: Silksong will be available at launch and in Game Pass when the Ally releases later this year." However, Team Cherry later clarified on their Discord server that Silksong is not specifically a launch title for the ROG Xbox device and is not tied exclusively to a console release.

The developers did confirm that the game will launch "BEFORE" holiday 2025, and with its upcoming appearance at Gamescom 2025, the long-awaited sequel is finally approaching its release.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is expected to launch in 2025 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. For the latest updates and information about the game, be sure to read our article below!