Seven years of silence, delays, and a Gamescom reveal

The critically acclaimed Hole Knight was launched in February 2017 by the three-person Crew Cherry studio. What began as a bare-bones idea created for a recreation jam turned one of many best video video games of all time, sparking a contemporary resurgence of the Metroidvania style.

In 2019, a promised DLC for Hornet expanded right into a full-blown sequel. Regardless of the preliminary advertising and marketing, the group went radio silent, promising that the sport was in growth. 

Virtually seven years later, Silksong was formally introduced at Gamescom 2025 with a September launch date. Let’s check out the trailer and recall how the group descended into insanity earlier than the announcement.

All of the teasing, ready, and silence culminated in August 2025 at Gamescom, Europe’s largest gaming expo. Crew Cherry lastly pulled again the curtain with a particular announcement:

Hole Knight: Silksong shall be launched on September 4, 2025. The sport shall be out there for Steam, Nintendo Change, Nintendo Change 2, Xbox, Sony PlayStation 4, Sony PlayStation 5, and DRM-free on GOG and Humble Bundle. Moreover, it is going to be a day-one title on Xbox Sport Go.

The trailer showcased the attractive 2D hand-drawn artwork type that made the primary recreation so iconic, because it gave a sneak peek into many various biomes and environments. Silksong’s targets would be the reverse of the Knight’s journey, the place as a substitute of descending into the center of Hallownest, gamers will ascend to the height of a haunted kingdom of Pharloom.

The sprawling, interconnected map perfected within the first recreation returns within the sequel. Gamers ought to anticipate the identical immersive exploration crammed with loneliness and secrets and techniques. But, the trailer exhibits that there are pockets of civilisation. 

Cities with bugs arrange store and supply quests, which might maybe tie in to the title card to “restore a kingdom’s hope”. Hornet’s journey could possibly be much less lonely due to the NPCs that she’ll work together with (that hopefully gained’t be topic to tragic fates after speaking to them).

Fight-wise, Hornet is rather more agile in comparison with the primary recreation’s protagonist. The trailer flaunts her potential to run prolonged distances, preventing within the air with extra grace than her counterpart, and the flexibility to make use of her needle as a grappling hook. Count on parkour sequences that might show more difficult than the primary recreation’s path of ache.

Hornet can equip crests and craftable instruments for fight and exploration. Her gear shall be helpful to combat off Silksong’s 200 enemies and greater than 40 bosses. Moreover, Gamescom had a playable demo that fortunate attendees might strive.

Hole Knight was partially funded by means of a Kickstarter in 2014, however the recreation was first launched on February 24, 2017. Hole Knight was beloved by followers and its backers, but it surely was overshadowed by Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The indie darling hit breakout success due to Nintendo’s E3 2018 Direct, the place they introduced on Crew Cherry to showcase the sport on stage. Following that, Nintendo shadow dropped the title, asserting that the Change port was out there on that day, bundled with free post-launch content material up to now. Inside two weeks, the sport offered greater than 250,000 copies on Nintendo Change.

Quick ahead to August 2025, Crew Cherry says that Hole Knight has cleared over 15 million copies offered, and all of those eyes had been ready on Silksong.

One of many stretch targets for the Kickstarter was including a second playable character: Hornet. Gamers meet this boss turned ally a number of occasions all through the sport, and she or he is a vital character to the sport’s narrative. 

Crew Cherry began work on her as a DLC character, the place her journey occurred in a brand new land, however they rapidly realised that it turned “too giant and too distinctive to remain a DLC, as initially deliberate”. Due to that, they introduced that Silksong can be a full-scale sequel to Hole Knight in a weblog put up, however didn’t point out any launch window.

Silksong instantly turned some of the wishlisted titles on Steam, and followers had been keen over each put up and teaser from Crew Cherry. At E3 in June 2019, Silksong returned to Nintendo’s showcase as a playable demo. Attendees queued for hours to strive a demo, which showcased two areas, Moss Grotto and Deep Docks.

Nintendo’s Treehouse Stay even streamed gameplay footage, giving the broader public an early look. Crew Cherry adopted up with an in depth weblog put up describing new mechanics and areas just like the expansive Greymoor area. By late 2019, they teased that Silksong would function 165+ new enemies and launched a preview of Christopher Larkin’s melancholic soundtrack.

Crew Cherry’s final weblog put up was in December 2019, reiterating that Silksong is in growth, however “timelines have stretched a bit each to account for all that thrilling new stuff and to tie up every part else”. 

The 12 months 2020 introduced lengthy stretches of radio silence from Crew Cherry, comprehensible, as a result of world pandemic. In lieu of huge bulletins, one mod for the Hole Knight Discord, Leth (accountable for advertising and marketing & publishing for the sport), engaged followers with cryptic riddles on their Discord in mid-2020, which, when solved, revealed new NPC characters and brief video clips of Silksong. 

Teasers trickled out, however nonetheless no launch window. The cycle of hope, disappointment, looped over like a punishment from mythological gods. In the event you had been round then, you felt it.

In December 2020, Silksong was the duvet story in EDGE journal. The problem featured unique screenshots and contemporary particulars, together with interviews with Crew Cherry’s co-directors Ari Gibson and William Pellen. 

This function was the primary substantial replace in almost a 12 months, and it could be the final replace on Silksong for years to return.

If 2020’s updates had been already sparse, 2021 had no crumbs left. Crew Cherry went utterly silent on Silksong information all year long. No trailers, no occasions, and no weblog posts emerged, regardless of hypothesis that the sport would possibly seem at showcases like The Sport Awards or E3. 

Followers hyped themselves up for each main showcase, ready for information about Silksong, and each time, they had been disillusioned.

Throughout this extended data blackout, the fan group grew stressed to the purpose of self-parody. On the Hole Knight and newly-formed Silksong subreddits, devotees started referring to their anxious psychological state as “silksanity.” With out official information, followers entertained themselves with memes, wild theories, and good old style Silkposting (which is usually about spreading wild misinformation on the sport).

One devoted fan launched a YouTube channel known as “Day by day Silksong Information” in early 2021, to not ship precise information, however to put up each day 30-second movies noting that no information had been introduced. Extremely, he saved this up for over 2,380 consecutive days, a Sisyphean satire of the lengthy wait, till Silksong was lastly revealed.

Others thought Silksong was a fever dream, a mass hysteria seen from an alternate timeline. Others thought it could be the indie equal of Half-Life 3 and GTA 6, legendary video games that had been eternally coming quickly. 

The group was saved alive on pure hypothesis, more and more unhinged posting, and ritualistic ban sacrifices, within the hope of conjuring a launch date. Whereas most of it was in good humour, some unhealthy actors took it to the subsequent stage, lashing out at followers and builders. 

Silksong lastly resurfaced in June 2022 throughout Microsoft’s Xbox & Bethesda Video games Showcase. A brand new gameplay trailer got here with a tantalising promise. Microsoft introduced that each recreation proven in that presentation was anticipated to be launched throughout the subsequent 12 months. 

By extension, followers took this to imply Silksong ought to launch by June 2023. Xbox’s social media even strengthened this implication. 

Shortly after, Sony introduced the sport would come to PlayStation as properly. By late 2022, Silksong was lined up for mainly every part hinting at a coordinated, all-at-once launch. Or at the very least, that’s the way it appeared.

As 2023 started, followers braced themselves for Silksong’s launch by June. However month after month handed with no replace from Crew Cherry. In Could 2023, Crew Cherry’s advertising and marketing rep, Matthew Griffin (aka Leth), lastly broke the silence with an announcement nobody wished:

By now, Silksong’s protracted growth had turn out to be a little bit of a operating joke. Why was a recreation with tens of millions of keen followers receiving zero advertising and marketing or standing updates for years on finish? Crew Cherry’s silence was controversial and harm the goodwill they earned.

But, Silksong remained some of the extremely anticipated video games on the earth. It camped on the prime of Steam’s wishlist charts and picked up Unity’s Most Anticipated Sport twice: 2021, then once more in 2024. Hole Knight’s legacy was robust sufficient that gamers had been keen to attend, even when begrudgingly.

On the fourth anniversary of Silksong’s reveal (February 2024), Griffin posted a quick Discord message acknowledging the milestone. He added that the group was “nonetheless onerous at work”. It wasn’t a lot, but it surely indicated the challenge was alive.

On April 2, 2025, a Nintendo Direct broadcast supplied the primary official Silksong replace in ages: in a fast sizzle reel, Nintendo reconfirmed that Silksong can be launched in 2025. 

Microsoft’s reveal of the brand new ROG Ally handheld prominently featured Silksong gameplay on the gadget’s display screen, albeit blurred on function within the background. Shortly after, Matthew Griffin took to Discord but once more to make clear Crew Cherry’s intentions: Silksong would “launch earlier than the vacation season of 2025” and was “not tied to any console launch”.

Lastly, with none additional delays, Hole Knight: Silksong’s launch trailer was proven on a particular announcement livestream. As of penning this piece, the trailer has racked up greater than 3.2 million views in lower than 24 hours.

The seven-year growth timeline took so long as the group wanted to make the sport they wished to make, with no controversy behind it. Pellen even talked about that they might have saved on going for for much longer.

Relating to their lack of updates, Gibson stated that speaking about continued updates would bitter their followers on the sport, as “all we might actually say is, ‘We’re nonetheless engaged on it.’” Crew Cherry actually believed that Silksong might come out a lot sooner, however the challenge saved increasing till years handed by. 

Introduced in 2019 as a sequel to the wildly profitable Hole Knight, Crew Cherry has been tight-lipped on Silksong. After seven years, Silksong is now not a hearsay or a fever dream; it’s an actual recreation that’s releasing on all platforms on September 4, 2025.

Silksong gained’t be handing out overview codes to critics and reviewers, which means there shall be no opinions on launch day. That is typically thought of a nasty transfer for customers, and gamers ought to nonetheless train warning, whatever the hype. 

Skongers have waited seven years; they will anticipate yet one more day for first impressions. No spoilers allowed!