How Hollow Knight: Silksong Played the Long Game and “Won”

Much has been made about the weird, long run between announcement to release date for Hollow Knight: Silksong. Announced in 2019, the game spent a lot of time in that purgatory after announcement but before any real, tangible evidence of the game existing. And with cancellations all too common these days, there was never a guarantee Silksong would ever actually come out. Much like Elder Scrolls VI and perhaps BioShock 4, people had little hope that Silksong would get a release date, trailer, or anything tangible in the future.

Even when Nintendo confirmed a 2025 release date with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it clip at this year’s Switch 2 Direct, people were still unsure until Team Cherry themselves released a trailer and confirmed a September 4th launch date. Team Cherry officially spoke on social media three times in that span: once in 2019 to announce the game, again two days before the trailer, and then with the trailer’s release. That journey is not what you would call ideal for a video game, but it might’ve actually paid off brilliantly for Team Cherry.

Hollow Knight Silksong‘s Long Development Might’ve Worked in Its Favor

It took more than half a decade to get Hollow Knight Silksong developed, and in that time, players begged for information on it. If, a few years after announcing a game, there is still no game, that’s usually a bad sign, but the Hollow Knight community stayed strong. Even those not part of said community, like myself, began to wonder about the sequel. The community is now thrilled, obviously, but so am I, somehow. Silksong could end up being bad as a result of the development cycle it’s been in, but at least now, everyone is all-in on it.

I haven’t gotten around to playing Hollow Knight despite downloading it off of Game Pass on my Xbox. It sits in the backlog of games that will maybe one day get played, but it’s a really long list that grows all the time. Even with plenty of time between Hollow Knight joining that list and now, it just sat, metaphorically collecting dust. I knew that, in theory, Silksong was coming. I even knew after the Nintendo Direct that it’d be this year.

Yet, Hollow Knight still went untouched. Now that there’s an arbitrary due date, so to speak, of September 4th, so I can play Hollow Knight: Silksong, I am much more motivated to finally pick up the original. This is a sentiment that’s been expressed online a lot, too. Fans who are rejoicing about Silksong’s long-awaited arrival are prompting those not in the loop to say, “So I should finally play Hollow Knight, then?” and the answer seems to be a resounding yes.

Team Cherry Stumbled Into a Brilliant Silksong Marketing Ploy

There is something accidentally brilliant about how Team Cherry went about this. They certainly didn’t mean for Silksong to be announced and then not come out for six years. But with indie games, there’s a danger in announcing because the developers just don’t have the manpower to churn games out quickly. It was always going to take them a while, and it did with Silksong.

However, it really might’ve worked out in their favor, especially with what I’m sure was a planned scenario. They could see the anticipation growing to unprecedented levels, so finally confirming the game a mere two weeks before its actual release date was utterly brilliant. The six-year wait was accidental, but once they knew it would be ready for the release date, waiting until the middle of August was so smart.

Imagine how excited the world will be once a game like Fallout 5 gets officially unveiled. Now imagine the disappointment when Bethesda sets the release date for two years later. Gamers would have been waiting a long time, and then, even though they know the wait wasn’t for naught, the wait wouldn’t be close to over.

If Silksong is going to come out on September 4th, that means it’s probably been ready for a little while now, but Team Cherry carefully calculated how to manage this, given that it’s become one of the most highly anticipated indie games of all time. The studio certainly seems to have managed this situation perfectly. Maybe the expectations for Silksong are too high, but it will undoubtedly help with sales for Team Cherry, which is a huge win for the indie gaming world.

Is Team Cherry’s Silksong Reviews Plan a Good Idea?