Latest news with #Gamescom2025
Express Tribune
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Hollow Knight: Silksong to be publicly playable for the first time at Gamescom 2025
Team Cherry's Hollow Knight: Silksong will be publicly playable for the first time at Gamescom 2025, according to Microsoft's official showcase announcement. The event will run from August 20 to 24, with Silksong featured at the Xbox booth on PC and the ROG Xbox Ally X handheld console. The upcoming demo is viewed by many as the most concrete indication yet that the long-awaited Metroidvania sequel is on track for its 2025 release. Microsoft revealed the news as part of its broader Gamescom programming, which includes several third-party titles expected to draw significant attention from attendees. Silksong will join other anticipated games at the Xbox booth, including Ninja Gaiden 4, Borderlands 4, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade. These titles will be available for hands-on testing by the public throughout the week. Xbox's dedicated Gamescom broadcast, scheduled for August 20 and 21, will also highlight Silksong and other first- and third-party games. Sarah Bond of Microsoft previously spoke about Silksong at June's Xbox Showcase, confirming the game would launch on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, ROG Xbox Ally X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Nintendo Switch platforms. It will also be available on Xbox Game Pass from launch day. Gamescom attendees will be among the first to try Hollow Knight: Silksong following years of anticipation since the game's initial announcement. The release date has not yet been confirmed but remains slated for late 2025.
Digital Trends
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Silksong will be playable next month, but only if you can get to Gamescom
Gamescom 2025 is shaping up to be a groundbreaking event with playable demos of many highly-anticipated games, including Hollow Knight: Silksong. Unfortunately, the demos will only be available to those who are present at the event, so anyone not making the trek to Germany is out of luck (for now.) Still, a playable demo is great news for fans who have waited years for Silksong to release. The news dropped today in an Xbox Wire post. Maxi Graeff, Xbox's gaming marketing lead for Germany, wrote that Gamescom will have more than 20 titles available to play, as well as hands-on experiences with both the ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X. In addition, Gamescom 2025 will also have a World of Warcraft celebration focused around the upcoming Midnight expansion and its anticipated housing feature. Playable demos will be available for the following games from third-party studios: Hollow Knight: Silksong Borderlands 4 Onimusha: Way of The Sword Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater EA Sports FC 26 Aniimo There Are No Ghosts at the Grand PowerWash Simulator 2 Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade Final Fantasy XVI Invincible VS Super Meat Boy 3D Cronos: The New Dawn Mistfall Hunter Recommended Videos In addition, Grounded 2, Ninja Gaiden 4, and several other titles will also be present with hands-on demos, while games like The Outer Worlds 2 will have a theatrical presentation that dives deeper into its late-stage capitalistic setting. Bethesda is hosting its own broadcast straight from the show floor starting on Friday, and Xbox FanFest is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Although the contest winners have already been chosen, Xbox invites more fans to sign up in the sweepstakes for next year. There will be a live broadcast covering many announcements starting at 9 AM ET on Wednesday, August 20 and Thursday, August 21. It might not be exactly the same as being there in-person, but the broadcast is a great way for fans to stay up to date on all of the latest announcements.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Report: Laid-Off Staff At Candy Crush Maker Say They've Been Training Their AI Replacements
Candy Crush maker, King, which Microsoft acquired along with Activision Blizzard back in 2023, was the first hit when mass layoffs were announced across the company earlier this month. Now some impacted staff say morale is at an all time low, as AI they've been training for years is potentially used to replace them. 'Most of level design has been wiped, which is crazy since they've spent months building tools to craft levels quicker,' a member of King's Farm Heroes Saga team reportedly told 'Now those AI tools are basically replacing the teams. Similarly the copywriting team is completely removing people since we now have AI tools that those individuals have been creating.' 200 were laid off across King, though many impacted staff are reportedly in limbo until union negotiations wrap up in September. According to improving morale at King was a top priority following poor internal survey results and ongoing attrition. Instead, one employee said 'it's now in the gutter' ever since the layoffs were announced. King has not been secretive of its use of AI tools to make games like Candy Crush, which players' spent an estimated $9 million on every week, even harder to stop playing. 'Before we release a level, we let the bots play that level and we get insights–are there any shuffles? How difficult was this level? And there are many more metrics that give designers an insight into the gameplay–we run them thousands of times so we have good accuracy,' King's director of AI Labs Sahar Asadi told at GDC in 2024. 'Then the designers decide if that is an intended experience that they wanted – yes or no–and they go back and refine the level,' she continued. 'We also have built a tool on top of this playtesting that does automatic tweaking by AI.' AI's been a reoccurring backdrop to Microsoft's decision to fire roughly 9,000 employees, including many across Xbox and its related gaming divisions. Developers were invited to an AI roundtable at Gamescom 2025 on the same day the layoffs were announced. A senior Xbox publishing producer encouraged impacted staff to us AI to redo their resumes and apply to new jobs. And over the weekend, one of Xbox's principle development leads put out a hiring post that used apparent AI slop for its image of someone coding at a computer. The cuts across Microsoft comes as it commits to invest $80 billion in AI technology, more than the total cost of all its recent gaming acquisitions, in the current fiscal year alone. 'The fact AI tools are replacing people is absolutely disgusting but it's all about efficiency and profits even though the company is doing great overall,' one King staffer told . 'If we're introducing more feedback loops then it's crazy to remove the developers themselves, we need more hands and less leadership.' . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Metro
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
You can play Switch 2 at Gamescom 2025 as Nintendo confirms attendance
After skipping last year's event, Nintendo has confirmed it will be attending Gamescom 2025, just two months after the Switch 2's launch. Now that E3 is no more, Gamescom is the world's biggest gaming event, based on its size and visitor numbers, but one company was notably absent last year. Nintendo skipped last year's event, held annually in Cologne, Germany, and while no explicit reason was given at the time, it was presumably so the company could prepare for the Switch 2's launch. Nintendo has now confirmed it will return for Gamescom 2025, which takes place from August 20 until August 24. The news was announced on Nintendo's German account on X. 'Mark your calendar in red,' the post reads. 'Nintendo will be back at Gamescom in 2025. We look forward to welcoming you to Cologne from August 20th to 24th!' There are no details on what Nintendo will show, but it will likely focus on the Switch 2 line-up beyond its initial launch on June 5, 2025. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza will both be released by the time Gamescom 2025 rolls around, so it might be the place to showcase Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokémon Legends Z-A, which are both slated for later this year, albeit without exact release dates. More Trending Drag x Drive, aka the wheelchair basketball game, is also set to launch at some point in the summer, while Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Imprisonment and Kirby Air Riders both have vague 2025 release dates, so it's possible they could be playable too. Neither Microsoft or Sony have announced whether they're attending Gamescom 2025, but the latter has skipped for the last several years. With Marathon and Ghost of Yōtei on the horizon though, it's possible Sony could make an appearance. As usual, Gamescom 2025 will be preceded by Opening Night Live, hosted by Geoff Keighley, which serves as a starting presentation for the event with game announcements. Before Gamescom, Keighley is set to host Summer Game Fest on Friday June 6, which will be followed by an Xbox showcase on Sunday, June 8. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Take-Two boss has zero interest in playing GTA 6: 'I'm not a gamer' MORE: Stalker Legends Of The Zone Trilogy Enhanced Edition review – Chornobyl horrors MORE: People shouldn't complain about £80 games says ex-PlayStation boss
