It has now been five years since Hollow Knight: Silksong was first announced, and there still has yet to be any news on the sequel's release date. The anticipated follow-up to Hollow Knight was originally slated for an early 2023 release, but developer Team Cherry chose to postpone the game's release to make sure the game is up to par with fan expectations. Although the reasoning behind delaying Silksong's release is commendable, such a lengthy development cycle could be a bad sign.

The excitement for Hollow Knight's sequel seems to have reached its apex as many fans are wondering when they will finally get another update. Since the sequel's announcement back in 2019, there have only been a handful of updates from Team Cherry, and this raises some questions about whether a long-running Hollow Knight franchise is sustainable or not.

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The Future of Hollow Knight Could Be Limited

Hollow Knight is one of the biggest indie successes in recent memory, and the sequel has a lot of pressure to live up to, so the careful development is understandable. It's also worth noting that Team Cherry is a small studio that only consists of three people. Hollow Knight's success is a great achievement for such a small team, but this could also be bad news for fans who are hoping for more Hollow Knight in the future.

After Silksong, Team Cherry May Need To Expand

Once Silksong finally sees the light of day, Team Cherry may benefit from growing its team if the ultimate goal is continuing the Hollow Knight franchise. Of course, the studio could still remain small in order to keep its charm, but adding a few more members to its team may be the best decision to keep Hollow Knight going. There are hopes from many fans that Silksong will finally be released sometime this year or 2025, but Team Cherry remains silent.

If developing a sequel has taken this long, that doesn't sound promising for any potential third entry in the Hollow Knight franchise. There is a lot of pressure on Team Cherry, which has to be stressful for the small team, and adding some extra developers could help make the development of future games run smoother. Although there is also speculation about a potential shadow drop for Silksong, it's more likely that Team Cherry is incredibly diligent in its work, and that's an enormous amount of work for just three people to handle.

Team Cherry's Future

For a three-person team, the studio has created one of the greatest Metroidvania titles of the twenty-first century, and it will be exciting to see what their future has in store. However, the stakes for Team Cherry are pretty high right now, and an update on Silksong is long overdue. The release date for the highly anticipated successor is still a huge mystery, and that's worrisome.

It would be a shame if Silksong's long development ended up giving Team Cherry a bad reputation after such high praise and support from both players and critics. Although it's great that the studio wants the game to be as polished as possible before it's released to the public, Team Cherry needs to get the ball rolling sooner or later. Seeing an indie studio like Team Cherry defying the odds and becoming even stronger would be great, but the studio may need to embrace growing just a little bit if it wants to continue the Hollow Knight franchise.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Franchise

Hollow Knight

Platform(s)

PS4 , PS5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series S , Xbox Series X , PC , macOS , Linux

Developer(s)

Team Cherry

Publisher(s)

Team Cherry

Genre(s)

Metroidvania

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