Gamescom 2025 preview – Opening Night Live, Hollow Knight: Silksong and more
What's about to go down in Cologne?
It's nearly here – Gamescom 2025 is soon to kick off at Cologne's Koelnmesse exhibition centre in Germany!
The biggest and best games industry trade show in Europe (and with E3 gone perhaps the world), games media mogul Geoff Keighley will kick us off with his traditional Opening Night Live show.
The Radio Times Gaming team will be there on the show floor to check out new titles, and you can hear all about our big hopes for the show in the video above!
If you'd prefer, you can also give it a look on the Radio Times Gaming YouTube channel, or on our podcast feed as well!
But for all you readers out there, you can happily read on for our preview, chock full of our hopes and dreams for Gamescom 2025 and Opening Night Live.
Gamescom 2025 preview: What will be in Opening Night Live?
Which games will be in the showcase? The clues are already out there! That's because, at Gamescom Opening Night Live, for a game to feature in the showcase, it has to be actually present on the show floor at Gamescom that year.
This makes it very unlikely that GTA 6 will be in Gamescom ONL. There's no whiff of Rockstar being at the conference in any official capacity. Of course, it could be planning a secret arrival with no pre-announcement, but we'd be very surprised.
Likewise, the chances are slim of Insomniac showing up with Wolverine, Valve showing up with Half-Life 3, or FromSoftware showing up with a secret Sekiro title.
It would be a huge surprise if a major game announcement happened here with no prior warning. (That doesn't mean it's impossible, though! Our fingers remain crossed for the Outer Wilds follow-up.)
We would predict that most of the big games in Gamescom Opening Night Live will be ones that are already announced to be at the conference.
This means you should expect to see the likes of Borderlands 4, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Silent Hill f and Resident Evil Requiem in Opening Night Live.
Major companies confirmed to be at the conference include Lego, Sega, Pokémon Go, Ubisoft, Xbox, EA, Bandai Namco, 2K and Roblox.
If your favourite developer isn't on this official list of attendees, don't be surprised if they don't feature in Opening Night Live.
You can watch Opening Night Live on the Gamescom YouTube channel, where it will be streamed live on Tuesday 19th August at 7pm BST here in the UK.
That's not the only showcase going on, either! There's also a trio of shows from the Future Games Show team (the big one is at 7pm on Wednesday 20th August, and you can watch it over on YouTube).
There are even live music events for attendees to enjoy, including The Witcher in Concert (8pm on Wednesday 20th August). But what about the show floor itself? Keep on reading for more on that.
Gamescom 2025 preview: Ones to watch on the show floor
Let's move onto the rest of the week, which will see the gaming press (that's us), industry officials and members of the general public rushing around the massive Koelnmesse centre in search of the next big thing.
Of course, the chance to see major new releases like Borderlands 4 is always exciting, especially when you haven't already attended a lengthy preview event for the game. Seeing as I didn't write the preview, I'm really looking forward to getting hands-on with that one.
Over at the Xbox booth, an impressive double whammy has been promised — Hollow Knight: Silksong will be available to try, as will the handheld Rog Xbox Ally device that the game is slated to drop on. That's sure to be a busy stand with a big queue for most of the week!
Equally, we're very excited at the prospect of trying out Capcom's Onimusha: Way of the Sword and Konami's Silent Hill f, although demoing an intimate horror game isn't always in keeping with the vibe of a busy conference.
Away from the larger companies, it's always a thrill to find your next indie fave at a show like this.
Our expert in more esoteric games, Alex Raisbeck, is primed and ready to taste the barmy-looking Romeo Is a Dead Man (check out the trailer above) and the colourful explosion that is Don’t Stop, Girlypop!
Throughout next week, we'll be bringing you reactions to all of this and more over on our social channels.
Don't forget to subscribe on YouTube, follow us on TikTok, and why not sign up to our Gaming newsletter while you're at it?
In the weeks that follow, expect plenty of exclusive interviews and insights as we continue to roll out our Gamescom coverage.
Gamescom takes place in Cologne, Germany, from Tuesday 19th August to Sunday 24th August. You can learn more on its official website.
Check out more of our Gaming coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Authors
Rob Leane is the Gaming Editor at Radio Times, overseeing our coverage of the biggest games on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, mobile and VR. Rob works across our website, social media accounts and video channels, as well as producing our weekly gaming newsletter. He has previously worked at Den of Geek, Stealth Optional and Dennis Publishing.
