Sony Blasts Tencent’s ‘Knock-off Horizon’ Lawsuit Response As ‘Nonsense,’ Insists ‘Damage Is Done’ And Calls For Injunction

Sony has asked the courts for a preliminary injunction against Light of Motiram maker Tencent to stop the Chinese megacorp from commencing pre-release promotion of the upcoming adventure game, filing its opposition to Tencent’s motion to dismiss the high-profile copyright lawsuit.

It comes after Sony accused Tencent of developing a “knock-off game [of Horizon Zero Dawn] so blatant that the public loudly decried the obvious and pervasive copying of Horizon’s protected elements,” claiming the release of Light of Motiram “jeopardizes Horizon’s continued success, including current expansion plans for the franchise.”

Sony claimed Tencent’s upcoming game Light of Motiram was nothing more than a “slavish clone” of Horizon Zero Dawn, and filed a copyright lawsuit in a California court at the end of July, outlining numerous similarities and comparing various marketing screenshots from both games, as well as their descriptions. As we explained at the time, just like Horizon, Light of Motiram takes place in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by giant robot dinosaurs who roam large, natural environments such as tropical forests, deserts, and snowy mountains. Both games even feature red-haired women protagonists that wear very similar outfits and styles, and devices similar to Aloy’s “Focus” earpiece.

Just days after Sony filed its lawsuit alleging the upcoming game was a “slavish clone” of Horizon, Tencent quietly updated its Light of Motiram Steam page and swapped out a number of screenshots, including its cover image, before responding to Sony’s lawsuit by claiming it was only making use of “well-trodden” tropes and suggesting the PlayStation maker’s own game was too similar to Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.

Tencent then hit back by describing Sony’s lawsuit an overreach, highlighting other game franchises with similar elements to Horizon Zero Dawn such as The Legend of Zelda and Far Cry. It was “startling,” Tencent said, that Sony was now attempting to claim Horizon’s concept was original, rather than an idea based on “ubiquitous genre ingredients.”

Now, as reported by The Game Post, Sony has dismissed Tencent’s response as “nonsense,” insisting “the damage is done – and it continues” and accusing the Chinese company of trying to minimize its involvement by using “shell” entities even though the Chinese firm remains “at the helm.”

“The copying was so egregious that numerous journalists and Horizon fans called Light of Motiram ‘a major Horizon rip off,’ ‘an obvious knock off,’ a ‘copycat’ with a main character that ‘resembles Aloy to a tee,’ and ‘extremely similar to Horizon Zero Dawn’,” Sony wrote.

That’s not all, though. As spotted by Games Fray, Sony has also filed for a preliminary injunction in a bid to prevent Tencent from using a red-haired character in Light of Motiram, as well as other visuals or storyline elements close to that of the Horizon franchise. It hopes for the injunction to be enacted by the end of the year.

Tencent, however, maintains that with a scheduled release date on Q4 2027, Sony “cannot possibly hope to demonstrate the ‘immediate threatened injury’ that is the prerequisite of a preliminary injunction” given the game is so far from release. It attached declarations from a number of key stakeholders, including Guerrilla’s head of music, Lucas van Tol, and artist Jan-Bart Van Beet who both claim they were “shocked” when they saw Light of Motiram, with Van Beet writing: “Tencent’s promotional material presents a visual setting almost identical to SIE’s Horizon promotional material.”

“After spending over a decade creating and developing the Horizon franchise, it was disappointing to see our work copied to such a significant extent,” he wrote. “Instead of spending the years and money that we invested into creating the Horizon world, Light of Motiram simply copied it, sidestepping the investment we made — and significant risk we took — in developing Horizon.”

He continued: “There is an even greater risk of harm to the Horizon franchise if Light of Motiram, once released, does not have the same high quality as the Horizon games. The confusion caused by Light of Motiram promotions has already interfered with our existing Horizon development strategy, as there is a risk that future expansion could be incorrectly interpreted as copying Light of Motiram.”

Van Tol wrote: “I have reviewed the music and sounds in Light of Motiram’s promotional materials. I found striking similarities between their promotional trailer and the Horizon music. Light of Motiram’s promotional materials contain the same core features of the Horizon sound, including the pillars, instrumentation, intimacy of the lead female voice, melodic composition, and rhythm, creating a similar overall feel.”

The case continues.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

‘They Took the Bait’: Pokémon Leaker Insists They Deliberately Hosted Hacked Images to Draw The Pokémon Company’s Legal Attention — and Confirm Details of Unannounced Games Are Legitimate

The owner of a high-profile social media account dedicated to sharing Pokémon leaks has boasted of having numerous images removed by The Pokémon Company today in response to copyright claims — something they say only proves the leaked details are legitimate.

Copyright removals have now hit a long list of posts by CentroLeaks, an X account that this week shared dozens of images said to originate from the infamous Pokémon “Teraleak” of data, originally hacked from the servers of developer Game Freak last year.

While not the source of the Teraleak itself, CentroLeaks has played a pivotal role in publicising its contents, sharing images from beta builds of this week’s Pokémon Legends: Z-A, to eye-opening details of unannounced games allegedly set to launch over the rest of the decade. Neither Nintendo nor The Pokémon Company have responded to IGN’s request for comment.

“Funnily enough they took the bait,” CentroLeaks posted this morning, stating that The Pokémon Company was behind the removal of numerous images that appeared to detail upcoming projects, including next year’s unannounced but highly-anticipated “Gen 10” Switch 2 games.

“Mr. Takato Utsunomiya, the Chief Operating Officer of The Pokémon Company, has personally sent an email to Centro Leaks / X to take down the Pokémon leak images,” another post by the account stated, later sharing what appeared to be a formal demand for a long list of posts to be removed as they contained “copyrighted works (illustrations) of the characters from the Pokémon video game series… reproduced and distributed to the public without our permission.”

Details of a further set of Mega Pokémon coming in Legends Z-A’s $20 DLC are among the images that have been removed, the account noted. “I guess Game Freak also confirmed the returning Pokémon list in the Legends: Z-A DLC is real,” CentroLeaks said.

Other removed images included concept art and early screenshots purported to show various upcoming Pokémon projects, including the Gen 10 games, a third Pokémon Legends title, and an ambitious sounding concept for a Pokémon game spanning multiple regions.

Attention to CentroLeaks’ account has been so widespread that fan art has already started to spring up of Pokémon species shown in the leaked art, likely years before any official reveal.

However, as IGN has stated previously, it is worth treating all of the details leaked online this week with a measure of caution, amid claims that some logos were in fact fan-made, and a general acknowledgement that all of the information is now a year out of date at the very least. Game Freak’s servers were breached in August 2024, and The Pokémon Company’s plans may have since changed, with specific concepts or indeed entire projects potentially scrapped altogether.

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have previously attempted to track down the culprit behind the original Teraleak, though seemingly have not had much success, judging by the huge spread of further details online this week. As for CentroLeaks, the account’s owner does not seem particularly concerned by either company, despite their infamously litgious nature.

At the time of writing, the most recent update on the CentroLeaks account is a retweet of a previous post from 2024, which simply states: “if only he knew that laws don’t exist in Peru.”

IGN’s review-in-progress of Pokémon Legends: Z-A is now live, if you want to check out our impressions of the first 24 hours, with a full review coming next week. If you’re jumping into Pokémon Legends Z-A, choose your Starter Pokémon, then check out our in-progress Pokémon Legends: Z-A Walkthrough, plus our Side Missions List to make sure you don’t miss anything. We’ve also got a Pokémon Legends: Z-A Pokedex, and most importantly, a guide to All Clothing Stores and Clothing in Pokémon Legends: Z-A so you can catch ’em all in style.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Stranger Things Star Admits ‘Everyone Was Pretty Worried’ About Wrapping Up the Show Well With Season 5, After Seeing Game of Thrones’ Final Season ‘Torn to Shreds’

The fear that Stranger Things might tank its reputation with a dodgy finale was a concern for the show’s cast, star Finn Wolfhard has admitted, after seeing Game of Thrones’ final season brutally “torn to shreds.”

Speaking to Time, Wolfhard mentioned the widespread reaction to Game of Thrones’ final episodes as an example of how a long-running big-budget TV series can build up enormous expectations for its hotly anticipated climax — then spark enormous backlash after failing to deliver.

Negative reaction to Game of Thrones’ final season still dominates discussion around the show, following widespread criticism of its plot, pacing and sudden character developments. Many fans blamed the uneven final season on the series’ creators running out of book material to adapt, while others have suggested the series simply tried to do too much in too few episodes. Regardless, it has become a model that other series, clearly, do not want to follow.

“I think everyone was pretty worried, honestly,” Wolfhard said. “The way that Game of Thrones got torn to shreds in that final season, we’re all walking into this going, ‘We hope to not have that kind of thing happen.'”

Not that Wolfhard is suggesting Stranger Things will wrap up its own run with a similarly polarizing finale — far from it.

“Then we read the scripts,” Wolfhard continued, saying that the show’s cast now felt reassured. “We knew that it was something special.”

Stranger Things’ fifth and final season will launch on Netflix with four episodes on November 26, before a further three episodes arrive on Christmas Day, December 25. The series’ feature-length finale will then release on New Year’s Eve, December 31, wrapping up the show’s supernatural saga after almost a decade. No pressure.

After all that, will this really be the end of Stranger Things? Of course not. Netflix already has plans for animated series and at least one spinoff.

This week, fans learned that Stranger Things’ final episodes will wrap up one long-standing mystery around the series — what the Upside Down actually is. So that’s something.

Photo by Rich Polk/Variety via Getty Images.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Silent Hill 2 Remake Sales Hit 2.5 Million as Franchise Surpasses 10 Million

A little over a year since Konami relaunched its long-dead Silent Hill horror series with the superb Silent Hill 2 Remake, the publisher has provided a sales update, confirming that it’s now up to 2.5 million worldwide.

That’s up from the 1 million copies Silent Hill remake sold in less than a week from launch.

The updated milestone now means the 26-year-old series itself has surpassed 10 million units shipped, despite lying dormant for over a decade.

As reported by Gematsu, the news came via a Konami News video report which primarily discussed its most recent release, Silent Hill f, which similarly debuted to a positive reception last month. At the beginning of the report, a text pop up says: “Silent Hill series has shipped over 10 million copies, and [Silent Hill f’s] predecessor, Silent Hill 2, has shipped over 2.5 million copies.”

Silent Hill 2 is a remake of the 2001 psychological horror game wherein you play as protagonist James Sunderland drawn to the terrifying titular town after receiving a mysterious letter from his late wife, Mary. IGN’s Silent Hill 2 Remake review returned an 8/10 score, and dubbed it “a welcome modernisation of a survival horror masterpiece.” Silent Hill f returned 7/10, where we called it “a fresh new setting to explore and a fascinatingly dark story to unravel,” but warned “its melee-focussed combat takes a big swing that doesn’t quite land.”

Don’t forget that Silent Hill 2 Remake is just one of the games coming to the PlayStation Plus Extra catalogue later this month. It drops on October 21 — just in time for Halloween — alongside the similarly spooky Until Dawn (the PS5 version), V Rising, Poppy Playtime: Chapter 1, As Dusk Falls, Wizard with a Gun, and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Premium Plus subscribers will be able to play Tekken 3.

If you’ve played through Silent Hill f and are still scratching your head about its story, check out our handy guide that explains what happens and why in each of Silent Hill f’s numerous endings.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

‘Is There Anything More Cruel?’ — Japanese Pokémon Legends: Z-A Players Are Debating the Rights and Wrongs of Eating Food in Front of Your Pokémon

With Pokémon Legends: Z-A releasing today for Nintendo Switch 1 and 2, excitement has been building among Pokémon fans on social media.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is taking us back to a revamped Lumiose City. Of course, you can catch Pokémon, battle them and do quests, but there’s also time for relaxing. One aspect of the game that some Japanese fans have been getting excited about is simply chilling with your Pokémon outside an in-game cafe.

YouTuber and blogger Koiwa Hawawa posted on Twitter / X: “What I’m most looking forward to in Z-A is having tea with Pokémon. But could it be that your Pokémon is just staring at the desserts? Is there anything more cruel?”

What Hawawa noticed is that while the trainer relaxes over a cuppa and cake, their Pokémon just sits on the other chair with nothing on the table in front of it. As evidence of possible Pokémon cruelty, Hawawa posted screenshots. The last image highlights Totodile, whose wide eyes and open mouth make him look like he is salivating at the thought of some sweet treats.

This post quickly attracted views (1.3 million at the time of this article’s publication) and comments from other users, with many questioning whether or not Pokémon can eat sweets meant for humans without getting some serious indigestion. However, as many pointed out, Pokémon have a history of eating all sorts of things, even curry and sandwiches (in Generations VIII and IX respectively). One user even posted an image of Meowth and Rocket Team members stuffing themselves with ramen.

One thing fans were in agreement with was that the Pokémon should also be snacking on something alongside their trainer. “Whether it’s a Poké Block, Poké Puff or Poffin, just give it something delicious,” one user implored. Another added: “The only food on the table is the protagonist’s, so for me that’s a bit of a negative.”

But maybe the Pokémon are content with just watching you eat? Discovered cafes in Legends: Z-A serve as fast travel points, and visiting them has several benefits. Firstly, sitting with a particular Pokémon strengthens your bond, which could be helpful for evolving them later on. Plus, buying drinks at a cafe restores your entire party’s health and removes status effects, so maybe your Totodile is sneaking a sip when you are not looking?

If you have already picked up Pokémon Legends Z-A and are wondering which initial Pokémon to pick, see our tips for choosing from the game’s three starters. If you’re jumping into Pokemon Legends Z-A, choose your Starter Pokemon, then check out our in-progress Pokemon Legends: Z-A Walkthrough, plus our Side Missions List to make sure you don’t miss anything. We’ve also got a Pokemon Legends: Z-A Pokedex, and most importantly, a guide to All Clothing Stores and Clothing in Pokemon Legends: Z-A so you can catch ’em all in style.

There’s also IGN’s Pokémon Legends: Z-A review-in-progress, which shares some early thoughts. Our full review comes out next week.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

Dead Space Creator Glen Schofield Thinks the Games Industry is “Broken, Beaten, and Battered”

In an impassioned end to his keynote address on the opening day of Gamescom Asia x Thailand Game Show in Bangkok, Dead Space creator and industry veteran Glen Schofield has declared that the games industry is in dire need of fixing, and he believes he knows just how to go about it.

“We need to fix the gaming industry right now,” said Schofield to a room of games industry professionals. “It’s broken. It’s beaten, it’s battered, our developers are battered, they’ve been taking it on the chin for the last couple of years. We need to bring it back to what it was, right? Instead of all this negativity.”

The first and arguably most controversial step to take in Schofield’s opinion, is for the games industry to widely embrace the use of generative AI as a standard part of their development tool set.

“AI isn’t here to replace us,” continued Schofield. “It’s here to make us faster, better, and more efficient. And AI is for all of us, it really is. It’s not just for directors and artists, it’s for writers and marketing execs.

“So, I think [games industry] executives, owners, founders… Let’s start training our people on AI. Start it as soon as you can. Who cares if I’m EA or Activision or Namco or whatever, we should be working together at least in training and training our people up. That would be a huge help because I know we’re going to start hiring people back again.”

Next up, Schofield believes that investors need to loosen their purse strings and start spending more on games development, as well as putting the right people in charge of each studio.

“Come on, investors and execs, let’s stop this madness,” said Schofield. “You want to make a AAA game for like eight million dollars? You gotta get your guts back again. If we start putting money into the industry again, we know it’s going to make money.”

“To me, you picked the wrong people to run the teams, to run the games, right? In my opinion [you need] a big, creative person who’s running it. And then you put people around to help with this and that. That’s the way I work these days, right? I still run my studio in ways but I have people to help now so I can be 100% or 98% on that. That’s what these games need. I saw some of the people that were chosen and they were really good people, but there’s no way they were ready to direct a game.”

“So I said, let’s start putting money in, do due diligence a little better on that. We know we’re going to make money. But we have to make quality games, and you have to give them to the right people.”

Lastly, and perhaps most strangely given that he was presenting the opening keynote address at a rival games industry show, Schofield wished for the return of E3.

“Bring back E3,” said Schofield to soft applause. “I mean, come on. E3 is the granddaddy of them all. And I will tell you every single E3 that I went to made my games better. And I know there’s no formula to show a [return on investment] on that, [but] every game got better when you went there. You talked with your friends, you talked with colleagues, everybody’s thrilled to help you with the next technologies, or showing you mechanics. When the companies started going outside of E3 I knew this was the end, and I started boycotting those because [that] was not an industry that was working together, this is an industry that’s fragmented. And so now there’s no E3.”

Schofield concluded his address by reiterating that while he’s fully onboard with AI, the most important aspect of games development were the people making them, not the machines.

“Remember, ideas are the lifeblood of the industry,” said Schofield, speaking to the developers in attendance. “And those ideas? They come from you.”

How do you feel about Schofield’s plan to “fix” the games industry? Sound off in the comments below!

Tristan Ogilvie is a senior video editor at IGN’s Australian office, currently attending Gamescom Asia x Thailand Game Show.

The Crew 2 Offline Mode Now Available

A new offline mode for Ubisoft’s The Crew 2 is available now, which will allow owners to play the racing MMO offline if desired. The functionality – dubbed Hybrid Mode – has been explained in full on the publisher’s website.

According to Ubisoft, Hybrid Mode gives us the “freedom to choose” how we want to play The Crew 2. That is, online mode (which is “the original experience as it was designed from the start, complete with multiplayer features, leaderboards, summits, and community sharing”) or offline mode (which the publisher describes as “a new experience”).

“Whether you’re looking to preserve your progression for the future or simply enjoy the freedom of playing without a connection, Hybrid Mode ensures The Crew 2 remains accessible for years to come,” explains the publisher.

To transfer progression into offline mode, players can simply select “Export to Offline Save” after a session online. Doing so will create a copy of current progression in the game’s multiplayer world stored locally on a personal PC or console. Ubisoft notes online and offline saves are separate, however, so progress made offline will not carry back over into online saves. Players will be able to re-export online saves to update offline files at any time.

Custom liveries will not transfer to offline saves.

An offline mode for The Crew 2 was announced last year in the wake of the the shutdown of the original game in March 2024. Disappointed players of The Crew (which was not a free-to-play game, but became inaccessible for its owners to play after its shutdown – even solo) were justifiably concerned about The Crew 2 suffering the same fate.

“We heard your concerns about access to The Crew games,” Ubisoft said at the time. “Today, we want to express our commitment to the future of The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest. We can confirm an offline mode to ensure long term access to both titles.”

Ubisoft was subsequently sued after the shutdown, a lawsuit the publisher responded to by insisting that buying a game doesn’t give players “unfettered ownership rights” to it, but rather only a “limited license to access the game.”

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

Action RPG Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE Releasing New Demo at TwitchCon

The November 17 release date on Steam and Xbox PC for action RPG Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE is quickly approaching, and to celebrate, it will have a booth at TwitchCon in San Diego this week where players can try out a new demo and win special merch.

Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE lets you step into the world of the massively popular Solo Leveling franchise, centering on protagonist Sung Jinwoo. It’s been built for PC and console (it’s scheduled to release on consoles in 2026) and includes the original story along with new adventures that are exclusive to the game.

If you’re not familiar with the series, it takes place in a world where people with supernatural abilities known as Hunters must protect mankind from a never-ending onslaught of monsters. Usually, Hunters’ abilities and strength level are determined when their powers first manifest. But Jinwoo gets a unique ability: he can level up. So even though he starts off as a low-tier Hunter, he can grow more powerful the more foes he defeats. And now he’s on a personal quest to become the world’s strongest Hunter.

It should be pretty obvious why this premise lends itself to a game, it basically already has RPG progression systems baked in. Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE builds on that base with a skill tree that branches into eight different job advancements. Through the course of the webtoon, Jinwoo transforms into the Ultimate Monarch of Shadows, and now you can experience his evolution for yourself.

As you can see in the video above, Jinwoo can switch between weapons and combine basic attacks with flashy special abilities to build up combos. But you can’t just mindlessly attack, you need to keep an eye on enemies and respond to their strikes and AoE attacks. You can execute perfectly timed parries or dodges to cancel out damage and unleash powerful counterattacks to keep the fast pace flowing and combo meter climbing.

However you defeat enemies, they’ll drop loot that you can use to craft new weapons, including ones pulled directly from the original webtoon, like Kasaka’s Venom Fang and the Demon King’s Daggers. There are several weapon types available, and your combat style will be determined by your weapon and skill tree choices. That makes for a variety of styles, like in the original story, giving you the opportunity to try out different options and figure out what works best for you.

You’ll face off against a ton of enemies and bosses solo, but some are too strong for even a leveled-up Jinwoo to deal with. That’s where multiplayer comes in. You can team up in four-player co-op raids to take on commanders that series veterans will recognize, and you can play as Jinwoo or one of the other available Hunters with their own set of unique skills.

If you’re interested in seeing more, don’t miss TwitchCon, which starts Friday, October 17 and will be open until Sunday, October 19. The Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE booth is open to the public, so any in-person attendees can come by and try out the demo. And there will be some popular streamers playing the game at the booth (iiTzTimmy, RDCGaming, EsfandTV, Agent00, ExtraEmily, and more). The booth will also have activities available, and people who complete them can earn exclusive merch.

If you’re not able to attend in person, no worries. There will also be streamers dropping by the in-booth streaming room to play the demo and share gameplay with their channels. The game releases November 17 on Steam and Xbox PC, with a planned release on consoles next year.

It’s available for pre-order now, and the story, boss raids, and multiplayer content are included. If you want to stay up to date on the latest info, you can check out the official website or follow on Twitter, YouTube, or Discord.

Infamous Van Gogh Pokémon Card Is Now Worth Over $1,000, and Primed to Continue Its Upward Trend

If you’re looking for a Pokémon TCG card to invest in before it gets to over $1,000 raw*, Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat is a solid bet right now.

Originally announced in 2023 with Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, and later given out as a treasure hunt prize on exiting the exhibition, Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat is the infamous 85th promo card in the Pokémon TCG’s Scarlet and Violet series.

It’s notorious for a few reasons, and unsurprisingly, it’s the usual story of scalpers ruining it for Pokémon trainers and collectors, causing chaos to the point that the museum stopped giving out the card. Scalpers even hassled visitors, asking to sell them the Pikachu card for cheap so they can resell it on the secondary market.

Even a small handful of Van Gogh Museum staffers got the sack for misconduct and reportedly stealing a box of Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat cards. In the words of Serebii.net’s very own Joe Merrick: “This makes me so sad and is why we can’t have nice things”.

At the time, this card was going anywhere from $100 to over $1500 on eBay, but thanks to a new re-print and distribution of the promo card via Pokémon Center online orders, things settled down. Well, as far as scalping goes.

It’s no longer available, which means we’re seeing a real climb on this card in the last 12 months. Looking over at value data on TCGPlayer, we were looking at $139 for this card in near mint condition in October 2024, and it’s (more or less) been a straight climb ever since.

It plateaued between March and July this year at around $330, but then started shooting up to over $680 right now. If you want a Pokémon TCG chase card that looks the price, out of print and a safe investment, I’d still snap up Pikachu in Grey Felt Hat today. I even own this one myself, and I’m holding onto it for as long as I can.

Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals.

*Raw is the term used for trading cards that haven’t been graded, which are now hitting $1,000 at a grade 10 across PSA, Ace, Tag, CGC, and more.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Patch 1.0.28954 Adds Fresh Fixes, New Simplified Chinese Translation Following Backlash

Hollow Knight: Silksong post-launch support continues again today with patch version 1.0.28954, now available via the game’s Steam public beta branch.

This update’s key feature is a “basic implementation” of a new Simplified Chinese translation, following an earlier backlash to the game’s initial Chinese language support included at launch that led to a spate of negative Steam reviews, and a subsequent pledge by Silksong developer Team Cherry to improve the feature.

After that blowback, it feels like Silksong developer Team Cherry is taking a cautious approach to the rollout of this fresh translation, with the studio now inviting further feedback from players using the Simplified Chinese translation to provide feedback on its clarity, style and spellings.

Otherwise, Silksong v1.0.28954 includes another list of game fixes — though Team Cherry has said that this list is still a work-in-progress, with more bugs likely set to be squashed before the patch rolls out more widely.

For now, the update is set to improve controller support on Steam, correct instances where Hornet’s plasmified state was being erroneously cleared, and ensure that Styx always hands over rosaries when given the Queen’s Egg.

Silksong remains one of the most-played games on Steam following its huge September 4 release. Here are some essential guides for your journey upwards: the Silksong Interactive Map, how to grind for Rosary Beads, our ever-expanding Walkthrough with boss videos and guides, how to get your first life bar upgrade (first four mask shards), and a great guide to the Simple Keys and the doors they open.

The full patch notes lie below.

Hollow Knight: Silksong update 1.0.28954 patch notes:

  • Updated Simplified Chinese translation with a new script for public testing. This is a basic implementation only, to be refined and updated based on player feedback.
  • Various localisation fixes implemented across all languages
  • Switched to Unity’s Input System to improve overall controller support. This includes rumble features now working for various controllers, and additional controllers being recognised. Some issues may remain. For a full list of supported controllers and features, please visit: https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.inputsystem@1.14/manual/SupportedDevices.html
  • Fixed Styx not giving rosaries when delivering the Queen’s Egg
  • Fixed Druid’s Eyes sometimes not equipping correctly when first acquired
  • Fixed some down attack colliders getting stuck on in rare instances
  • Fixed several instances of Hornet’s plasmified state clearing when not intended (eg Bellway travel)
  • Fixed issues entering the plasmified state when killing a Winged Lifeseed, rather than using the Plasmium Phial
  • Reduced unintentionally long bind time when using Multibinder with the Shaman crest
  • Updated Multibinder’s initial bind to clear maggots, per community comments
  • Various smaller tweaks and fixes

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social