Did Tencent just stealthily try to walk itself back from the brink after getting sued by Sony for trying to rush a brazen ripoff of Horizon Zero Dawn to market? Will the PlayStation 6 be Sony’s least important console yet? And do we finally have our first real clue as to when Hollow Knight: Silksong will come out? Welcome to the latest Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily round-up of news, trailers, and other fascinating curios, like how the proprietor of Mom’s Spaghetti is totally chill with being known as “The guy from Fortnite.”
Tencent tries to pretend the Light of Motiram never happened
The Chinese conglomerate was recently sued by Sony,who alleged that Tencent kept trying to license Horizon Zero Dawn for a survival crafting game and, when Sony kept saying no, turned around and made it anyway. A week later, The Game Post noticed that developer Polaris Quest has quietly been changing out the worst offending images, language, and key art from the game’s Steam page. References to “colossal machines” and “Mechanimals” were stripped from the description and the screenshots and art now focus on generic scenes instead of Light of Motiram‘s Temu version of Aloy. Now that Sony has called Tencent’s bluff, it’ll probably continue to strip out the most egregious Horizon copycat elements from the game. We’ll see if that’s enough to get the PS5 maker to settle.
Sony is moving away from a “hardware centric business model” ahead of the PS6
Sony Senior Vice President Sadahiko Hayakawa says they are gradually shifting their gaming business from a hardware centric business model to a community and engagement based platform business model #PlayStation
“In the gaming business, we are moving away from a hardware centric… pic.twitter.com/8xnKyihMHE
— Genki (@Genki_JPN) August 7, 2025
The console war is grinding to an end. With Forza Horizon 5 on PlayStation and Helldivers 2 coming to Xbox, the old rivalries are slowly, if not completely, fading into the background. “In the gaming business, we are moving away from a hardware centric business model more to a platform business that expands the community and increases engagement,” senior Sony VP Sadahiko Hayakawa said this week. While in line with the company’s previous comments about focusing more on total players and engagement time over unit sales, the remark still raised eyebrows as the PS5 continues to dominate. Former chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment of America, Shawn Layden, responded with a GIF of God of War‘s Kratos putting his head in his hands.
The Xbox Rog Ally release date may have just leaked
According to Dealabs poster billbil-kun, the new PC gaming handhelds with Xbox-like console experiences will come out in Europe on October 16. Neither the date nor the price of the upcoming hardware has been officially revealed yet, though billbil-kun previously claimed it would cost €599 for the Xbox Ally and €899 for the more powerful Xbox Ally X in Europe. We’ll have to wait and see how those prices translate to the U.S. amid Trump’s current tariff war.
A very convincing theory for Silksong‘s possible release date
Xbox fans will remember that Microsoft used Silksong to hype the Xbox Rog Ally reveal back during its Xbox summer showcase. The most wishlisted game on Steam would be “available at launch and in Game Pass when Ally releases later this year,” Xbox president Sarah Bond said at the time. Based on this, PC Gamer‘s Harvey Randall speculates that, if the October 16 leak is accurate, that could also be Silksong‘s launch date. That day is also a Thursday, which is when most new Switch 1 and Switch 2 games come out. Hmmm. Or maybe Bond simply meant that Silksong would already be out by the time the Xbox ROG Ally arrives, which, if that’s the case, is even better!
Ashes of the Singularity 2 is happening
The real-time strategy game known for its massive armies will return with a sequel nearly a decade later, this time with a human faction. There’s no release date yet and my current PC will just barely be able to run it but as a huge fan of Total Annihilation, one of the series’ influences, I can’t wait.
Nintendo’s next Switch 2 exclusive has a free player test this weekend
There is already a Drag x Drive: Global Jam demo on the eShop players can try for free, but there will also be an online play test this weekend. The beta will be split up into three sessions with the following East Coast start times: Saturday, August 9 (6:00a.m.-10:00a.m. and 8:00p.m.-12:00a.m.) and Sunday, August 10 (12:00p.m.-4:00p.m.) The $20 game that revolves around using the Joy-Con’s new mouse controls to spin your character’s wheels launches on August 14.
ICYMI
Listen to this:
The Idle Thumbs podcast has an excellent interview with Frost Giant’s Tim Morten and Tim Campbell about their StarCraft-inspired old-school RTS Stormgate which just left Early Access on Steam. The game had a bumpy launch last year but the 1.0 release received a glowing review from IGN. I’m looking forward to trying to check it out this weekend.
