There are certain games that become so famous for not being released that it occludes almost everything else about them. Following the likes of Duke Nukem Forever and Half-Life 3, after years of no news, no trailers, no nothing, Hollow Knight: Silksong has now very much become the go-to example of gaming vaporware. But hark, what¡¯s this? Developer Team Cherry has acknowledged that the game, in fact, does still exist! After quite the confusion.
This follows a little bruhaha last week after fans desperate for something, anything, leapt upon Hollow Knight co-creator William Pellen¡¯s updating his socials with a new name, handle and image, then tweeting out January 16 that ¡°something big is coming. keep your eyes closed tomorrow.¡± Not exactly unreasonably, those waiting for news on sequel Silksong for the last six years thought this was the beginning of some manner of marketing campaign, the start of an ARG that should compel them to dissect the changes, the new names of ¡°@everydruidwaswr,¡± ¡°little bomey,¡± and a profile pic of a slice of chocolate cake.
This, of course, coincided with the Switch 2 announcement, and again, it would make a great deal of sense to assume this meant there was to be an announcement that Silksong could be a launch game for Nintendo¡¯s next console. That¡¯s the starting point, and then the confirmation bias-based conspiracies began. As Eurogamer pointed out, reverse image searching the slice of cake led to a recipe from April 2, 2024, which is exactly one year before the date of Nintendo¡¯s announced Switch 2 Direct... And yeah, all that sort of red-string coincidence.
However, it turns out¡ªas reported originally by GamesRadar¡ªthis was all absolutely nothing. Hollow Knight speedrunner fireb0rn spoke to Team Cherry¡¯s PR guy, Matthew ¡°Leth¡± Griffin, and had it confirmed that this was all a misunderstanding.
This was then further confirmed by Leth, in reply to another X user.
¡°Yes the game is real, progressing and will release,¡± Griffin told the desperate wannabe player, giving us our first sign of life from Silksong since dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
It¡¯s not exactly useful information, of course. But given how infuriatingly silent Team Cherry has been throughout, it¡¯s better than nothing. The game was announced in 2019, and then almost nothing was heard until 2022. That summer it appeared in Microsoft¡¯s Not-E3 showcase, with a confirmation this meant it would be out within the year. Come May 2023, it was made public that the game would no longer meet that timeline, but no other details were added. And since then, it¡¯s been radio silence once more. People got rather excited back in April 2024 when a store page and ESRB rating appeared, making everyone sure it was coming out any moment, but, well, look around you.
¡°Is real¡± and ¡°will release¡± are not exactly comforting words for the near-psychotic legions of fans desperate finally get to play Hollow Knight: Silksong, the sheer vagueness suggesting that nothing is close to happening soon. Then again, Team Cherry has clearly been burned far too many times to be willing to commit to anything at this point, perhaps even if they were days away from an announcement. Which is all to say: shrug.
In the meantime, why not give that money burning holes in your pockets and souls to tiny indie teams making amazing metroidvania games?
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