Hollow Knight: Silk – The story behind the game that we demonstrated in 2019

Unfortunately, it has become the new norm to wait for a few years to play our favorite game. While the reality of modern game development means studios are working harder to hit higher standards than ever before, it hasn't stopped Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 6, Valve's Half-Life 3, and especially Cherry Team Cherry's Silksong from becoming unexpected faces for the industry's extended timetable. The last one is surprising because when it was first announced, it didn't seem to be a sequel to Hollow Knight.

Months turned into years, and until recently, it felt like we weren't far from the Silk in 2019, when we played a hands-on demo of the mysterious sequel. In the years since, Silksong has achieved meme status, and neither every New Nintendo Direct or Xbox developer showcase can bring them closer to the promised sequel after. How did we get here? How close are we to the legendary version of Silksong?

Silksong should have been DLC initially

Australia-based studio team Cherry first launched Hollow Knight on Kickstarter in 2014, hoping to get enough money to turn its 2D Soulslike+Metroidvania Fusion Game Jam Prototype into a full-fledged game. After meeting the initial funding target, the Cherry team revealed more stretch goals, which promised new tasks, bosses, and ultimately promised The second playable character is called Bumblebee. These funding goals were met, and therefore the development of Hollow Knight began to be expanded.

As promised, Hollow Knight's 2017 release is followed by a series of DLC drops. Hidden Dreams, Greene, Gods and Glory-based games add new boss battles, mission lines, quick travel mechanics, and more. But what about the second playable character? Where is Bumblebee?

Then, on February 14, 2019, Hollow Knight: Silksong officially announced. In the blog post Developer Diarythe Cherry team explained how the Bumblebee program evolved rapidly. Initially, the developers debated whether to add her as the second protagonist, and players could switch between the main campaign or make her a star in the independent chapter. Eventually, Bumblebee's idea became so big that the Cherry team decided to spin the DLC into a full sequel.

The plan is now telling a brand new bumblebee-centric story in a brand new kingdom. Her play style will be very different – slower, heavier knights are more flexible and acrobatic. She will need all the speed and flexibility when confronting Silksong's 150 new enemies and bosses.

The fans of Hollow Knight were excited and the Cherry team quickly took advantage of Silksong's excitement…

We've even played

Although the Cherry team never announced a release date, none of us expected Silksong's unveiling to be the start of a sequel for more than six years. In the same year as the announcement, the Cherry team went all out to promote Silksong, revealing NPC roles through anniversary Blog Posts March 2019, before the 2019 E3 showed a playable demo.

Not only did we see the demo of E3 at IGN, but our own Tom Marks played it. In his preview, he Write“The Hollow Knight is one of my favorite games of all time, but I think there is a chance that Silksong will get better.”

The demo takes place about 20 minutes long and takes place in a new hot zone filled with several new enemies and two boss fights. I came across the mark of this story and asked him if the silk demonstration at the time was like a few years later it could be ready, or it felt like it was far from complete.

“Not six years,” Max told me. “You (can) say that this is not the final version, but based on the vertical slices I've played with, it feels really delicate.”

The demo will later be taken to PAX Australia 2019 and shared with attendees there. Usually, when the game appears playable in multiple events, the finish line gets stuck, so we are completely unaware of the reality of waiting.

As the campaign evolved, Cherry Marketing and Publishing Head Matthew “Leth” Griffin began revealing new NPCs on the official Hollow Knight Discord server to reward fans with various riddles. In that December, there was a Full Cover Story in Edge Magazine #354 With new details, screenshots and an inspiring interview with Cherry joint coaching team Ari Gibson and William Pellen, discussing deeper, more complex levels and glimpses of the Wasp's mysterious story.

Silk hidden

After the sequel was announced, the crazy news from Silk News will soon give way to the long winter. The Cherry team remained silent throughout 2021 and fans spent a year waiting for any signs of the release date. As some unexpected messaging films rotate the rumors, there is an expected release window for 2020-2021.

For example, in September 2019, the official Silksong Steam page suddenly updated its release date on June 12, 2020. Later, the Cherries will confirm that this is just an accidental placeholder date. Just a few months later, on August 20, the Silksong logo appeared in a Nintendo official UK tweet That's what it's written: “Look at some of the upcoming games heading to the Nintendo Switch this year and beyond.” It's not clear that Silksong is firmly in the “beyond” category – we haven't gotten it yet and will soon expect it to be stupid.

“Everything displayed today will be played in the next 12 months”

It wasn't until nearly two years passed that we could see the silk again. On June 12, 2022, Xbox aired the annual Summer Olympics showcase, which is among other things, a brand new, one-minute trailer for Cincingao. But while it reveals new games, areas and bosses, the trailer doesn't include a release date. However, it does announce that the silk will be Playable Day One on Xbox Game Pass.

If it weren't for the unfortunate follow-up news from Xbox, this might have been enough for fans.

After the show, the official Xbox Twitter account Posted“Everything you see today can be played in the next 12 months.” Given that Silksong is one of the games that exist in the showcase, this is considered a release window for the game.

“So did you tell me the silk appeared in the next 12 months?” asked a user on Twitter. “That’s exactly what we say,” Xbox answered.

Oh boy.

That's exactly what we say.

– Xbox (@xbox) June 12, 2022

Silksong was officially delayed, no release date

To be fair, the Cherries’ plan appears to be to release Silksong within 12 months of the Xbox Games Showcase. so much Confirmed by Cherries' Matthew Griffinhe shared on Twitter in May 2023 that Silksong plans to release in “January 1, 2023”.

But, Griffin added: “Unfortunately, development continues. We're excited about the way the game is shaped, and it's getting big, so we want to take the time to make the game as good as possible. Once we get closer, we look forward to more details. ”

So, without an announcement date, Silksong received a formal delay from the Cherry team.

Hey Gang, just a quick update about silk.

We plan to release on the 1st of 2023, but development continues. We were excited about the way the game was shaped, and it became big, so we wanted to take the time to make the game as good as possible.

Expected to…

— Matthew Griffin (@griffinmatta) May 10, 2023

Silk becomes a meme

There has been a lot of changes in the gaming industry in the years since Silksong was first announced. The 19009 pandemic meant that face-to-face events were temporarily suspended, and now some events like E3 seem to have disappeared forever. Instead of these traditional events, we have created Digle Digital presentations from Geoff Keighley, Xbox, PlayStation and even your Digle Digital presentations on IGN, as well as your real digital presentations on IGN, and countless digital presentations.

This means there are now dozens of potential new display cabinets, and the Cherries can share more about Silksong. Each new standalone game showcase, Nintendo Direct or any other show has the potential to reveal a new Silksong trailer, preferably a silk trailer with a release date. Each new display cabinet failed to deliver items, and fans began to see the absence of silk as a joke.

Anyone who follows the gaming industry on social media may recognize the most popular silk memes: Whenever a company publishes about an upcoming game display cabinet, there will be at least one photo of the Knight from Hollow Knight or Hornet Clown wigs and makeupindicating that the poster is ready like a fool when silk inevitably appears.

Fan Art of the Knight or Bumblebee Now everywhere. It means wanting to learn more about silk stupidity. Rainbow-colored wigs and clown noses have become informal Silk fans' uniforms After years of pain. “Will the new Nintendo partners have silk directly?” fans dared to ask. “Absolutely not, you clown,” the universe replied.

Just to prove that the universe is also kidding, Silksong gets official launch on the Xbox store for the first time April 1, 2024. April Fool's Day.

End of the tunnel

The Cherry team confirmed several times in 2024 that Silksong would not appear in the biggest performance of the year. It does not exist E3 Alternative Summer Showcase for 2024Geoff Keighley confirms silk Not appearing as part of the opening night scene Gamescom in 2024. The Cherries skipped Back to back Nintendo guidance That year, in August 2024, it was independent and direct to third-party partners.

But 2025 is another story. The year began with fans posting on the official Hollow Knight Subreddit, where they met Silk Co-director Ari Gibson. According to fans, Gibson joked that there is no sequel yet, but there is more to share “soon.”

That's not a bluff. On March 19, 2025, Xbox released a new one ID@xbox Blog It highlights its commitment to continue to release great indie games including Silksong. A few weeks later, Silksong reappeared in the show's hiss in the April 2 Nintendo Direct 2025 Release Window.

Silksong has made another appearance during the announcement of the upcoming ROG Ally X Handheld, the game briefly runs on Xbox-branded devices. Cherries' Matthew Griffin Not bound to any specific console The sequel is still scheduled to be released “Before the Holiday (2025)”. Now we know that silk will be Playable at Gamescom's Xbox booth. This will be the first game demo since 2019.

Although Silk in the recent Nintendo partners are directly a famous one though – Tips for clown memes – It does feel like we're finally getting the elusive silk, which was announced for six years that the DLC character Bumblebee will be in her own game. Maybe we can take clown makeup off our face once and for all.

Matt Kim is an advanced feature editor for IGN.