Do we have some crazy video game news this week. It never slows down!
This week’s video game news round-up involves an update to those Hollow Knight: Silksong theories, release dates from the Xbox Developer Direct, and new gameplay trailers!
We have updates from some fan theories last week, another awards show, and some big announcements, so let’s jump to it!
Those Hollow Knight: Silksong theories are probably off-base
I mean, the coincidences are a little too coincidental, but still. A marketing/publishing member for Team Cherry did come out to confirm that yes, Hollow Knight: Silksong is still very much a game and still very much in development.
Those rumors from last week from the co-creator of Hollow Knight changing his Twitter avatar to a picture of a chocolate cake are definitely a little farfetched. But we can hold out hope… even if video games have taught us that the cake is a lie.
The New York Game Awards
Yes, another set of game awards was this week, the New York Game Awards! They took place on January 21st. What were the highlight winners? Well, Astro Bot won GOTY, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree won for best world and best DLC, and Troy Baker won for Best Acting in a Game for his performance as Indiana Jones.
All that and Sam Lake (our fave) was honored with the Andrew Yoon Legend Award. There’s a good IGN interview with him talking about his history in the gaming industry, too. And you can watch his acceptance speech below.
Xbox Developer Direct 2025
The Xbox Developer Direct took place Thursday and gave us a closer look at four games (one previously unannounced!) and release dates for games we have on our “13 Games We Can’t Wait to Play in 2025” list.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 releases on April 24, Doom: The Dark Ages releases on May 15, South of Midnight releases on April 8, and Ninja Gaiden 4 was announced with a release date later in 2025. You can watch the whole Developer Direct below for a deeper dive into everything (there’s a lot!).
Also! They announced a remake of Ninja Gaiden 2 from 2008 and it’s out now!
Phantom Blade Zero gameplay trailer
No, we still don’t have a release date for this upcoming title (just some time in 2025), but the new, snappy gameplay trailer that was released this week has us even more excited about it. It doesn’t look too dissimilar to Black Myth: Wukong (which isn’t a bad thing) but with more of a pure action game feel instead of a Soulslike.
Insomniac Found Ted Price is retiring
Probably more happy/sad news, but we wanted to note that the founder of Insomniac Games, Ted Price, is retiring after 30 years in the gaming industry. Insomniac, if you’re unaware, published Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet and Clank, and most recently Marvel’s Spider-Man games (and are putting out that hotly anticipated Wolverine game at some point).
Marvel Snap back online
Unless you live under a rock, the TikTok ban was a big thing this past weekend. ByteDance, which owns TikTok, also owns Nuverse, the publisher of Marvel Snap, and when TikTok was taken down, so was this game.
The creators have come out to say they’re looking for a new publisher so this doesn’t happen again (since TikTok’s fate is still up in the air), but it’s left a lot of questions in gamers’ minds.
Because if TikTok was banned due to ByteDance’s ties to China, would the US government also turn its attention to other media? Because Tencent is a pretty big name with their hands in a lot of different video game pots and that could lead down a very dark path.
If you want to doom-read (instead of doom-scroll), there’s an interesting read about it at Forbes. It’s all hypothetical, of course, but it does bring to light how that TikTok ban could affect other aspects of entertainment.
