The Lead Up to Silksong was Hilarious

Now that Hollow Knight: Silksong is out, I just wanted to talk about how absolutely insane the time leading up to its release was, because I found the entire thing hilarious! I haven’t even really played Hollow Knight. I just sat back and watched the chaos.

It all started on the 14th of February 2019 when Team Cherry revealed Silksong’s existence on their Kickstarter. Initially, it was a DLC for the base game that enough backers funded, but it became big enough to warrant a standalone game being made instead. It’s kind of weird going back to the old KS page and seeing that it only made $57,138 AUD (around £28,000), given Hollow Knight’s massive success. It barely got funded to begin with, only reaching the bare minimum during the last couple of days of its campaign. We could’ve got more playable characters and even a release on the PlayStation Vita.

However, after that, there was almost complete radio silence from Team Cherry; no updates, no dev blogs, not even a whisper of what the game is like. There might be a cheeky tweet here or there, but nothing substantial. Of course, the jokes and memes came and went with people begging for Silksong at every single major gaming event.

Who knew this small game would make a big impact?

Someone even made a YouTube channel all about keeping track of any info on the game, but most videos were just following this script: “Today is [date], this is [host], your host for the day, bringing you your daily Silksong news. There has been no news to report for Silksong today. This has been your daily Silksong news for today, [date]."

Overall, it didn’t seem good. The lack of communication was a pretty big sign that the game was going through some troubles… on the surface. Later interviews from Team Cherry revealed that it wasn’t because of any outside factors (that I have covered here on what makes games fail), it was because they were simply having too much fun making the game.

This is what Development Heaven looks like.

Thanks to Hollow Knight’s success, it gave the studio the time and resources to develop the game without much worry for the past seven years. However, because they were too busy actually making the game, marketing and social media were neglected. We’ve all heard stories of development hell, but this was the first time most people had heard a story of development heaven.

That being said, as the years went on with no news, hope dwindled amongst fans as Directs, showcases, and Game Awards passed with barely a single word about the game (that Deadpool VR crack definitely stung a few hearts). However, we did get a trailer during the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase in June 2022 Summer Game Fest, telling everyone that the game was still a thing and that it was going to be released that year!

That obviously didn’t happen, or I wouldn’t be writing this article three years later, and thus hope was extinguished once again. That is… until Nintendo’s April 2025 Switch 2 Direct where during their sizzle reel, for a few seconds, new footage of Silksong was shown. It was quite literally only five seconds, maybe, that instantly made the internet explode!

Silksanity was starting to set in...

Funny thing, the stream happened to stutter a little bit for some at that moment, so people entirely missed that tidbit. And that was it for a couple of months! Hope was renewed, even if just for a little bit, but it was certain: Silksong wasn’t ready to bow out just yet.

But then it was mostly silence… until there wasn’t. During gamescom 2025, a special announcement was made informing the world that it would finally release… two weeks later, on the 4th of September 2025. There was no joking about it, Silksong was real, and it was coming a lot faster than most people anticipated and for much cheaper too.

Because of how big the hype for Silksong was (and they themselves want to play it), many indie devs decided to delay their games so they wouldn’t be crushed by Team Cherry’s long-awaited title, and that turned out to be for a very good reason too (you should go check them out).

Despite the whole “no preorders” phrase that a lot of conscious gamers tend to say when it comes to big releases, Silksong showed why this was implemented in the first place as the sheer demand to buy the game crashed practically every major digital storefront. From Steam, to the Nintendo eShop, Xbox, PS Store, Humble Bundle, and GOG… they all got wrecked. The few indie games that didn’t delay their game (such as Adventure of Samsara) couldn’t even make any sales for a few hours. Whoops! It’s like that one Simpsons scene where multiple diseases are trying to get through the door but can’t.

This single title crashed every single major digital game store.

It was noble for Team Cherry to release the game to everyone at the same time, no dastardly critics getting free Early Access to the most anticipated game of 2025, but it was still kinda dumb. Sure, it was nice that the original backers finally got the game for free, but it did lead to some unnecessary chaos. It made for some hilarious posts though as, somehow, Silksong was delayed one more time.

Post-release has been seriously weird too. Without any DRM, the game was pirated only 15 minutes later, but many decided to forgo sailing the flags and legally purchase the game out of respect for Team Cherry. We also have some indie devs expressing their worries about what effect Silksong could have on the wider industry. Finally, the general consensus right now is that while many deemed the wait worth it, the difficulty spike compared to its previous entry has left bitter tastes in some mouths. That’s not to mention the terrible Chinese translation that it came with.

It was a long journey, now it's time to set off on another one.

Still, it should be a lesson to other eager devs that communication is key for keeping up interest in your game and something like Silksong staying in people’s minds is extremely rare. We’re not going to get Half-Life 3 until Valve has something truly game-changing to show the world. But from an outsider who has no intention of playing anything related to Hollow Knight, it had to be the best comedy of 2025.