Team Cherry's upcoming title Hollow Knight: Silksong is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated games in development at the moment. A follow-up to the hugely successful Hollow Knight, Hollow Knight: Silksong is making some changes from its predecessor with a new protagonist and a new setting, but the fast-paced action, challenging gameplay, and distinctive aesthetic are all set to return. Hollow Knight made a big splash when it first launched in 2017, and it impressed both critics and players with its unique take on Metroidvania tropes. As a result, expectations are high for Hollow Knight: Silksong, but Team Cherry has gone surprisingly quiet in the last few years.
No two development cycles will be the same, and just because fans have barely heard a peep out of the Hollow Knight: Silksong camp recently doesn't necessarily mean that there's trouble on the horizon. Team Cherry might have wanted to avoid the same fate as other developers that revealed way too much about upcoming titles too early, and spoiled their eventual releases due to prematurely jumping the gun. Gamers have already seen a decent amount of Hollow Knight: Silksong in the first year after it was announced, and the developer's silence now could be a similar tactic to those undertaken by other games like Square Enix's Final Fantasy 16 prior to its own release.
Final Fantasy 16's Release Strategy
Games have to tread a fine line between keeping players informed about their progress and not revealing too much at the same time. Developers want to keep some things back for fans to discover for themselves as they play through the title, and providing too many details about an upcoming game might unintentionally promise too much and lead to disappointment. Final Fantasy 16 seems to have hit the right kind of balance between keeping fans in the dark for a while, and then ramping up the marketing as the game's release date looms to get help generate excitement ahead of its June 2023 launch.
Final Fantasy 16 has been in development for a long time, and as part of a long-running and popular series, its announcement in 2020 didn't come as much of a surprise. Still, Square Enix was fairly secretive about the title initially, even though the first trailer already used real-time footage and seemed to suggest the game was fairly far along in its development. Not much else emerged in the next two years, and it was only in 2022 that things started to heat up again for Final Fantasy 16 news. Since then, there have been plenty of updates, trailers, revelations, and glimpses of the game in action now that its June 2023 release date approaches –just enough time to get fans appropriately hyped for Final Fantasy 16's launch.
How Hollow Knight: Silksong's Strategy Compares
Hollow Knight: Silksong hasn't had quite as long a gestation period as Final Fantasy 16 reportedly had, although it was announced first. However, as it started off as a planned DLC for 2017's Hollow Knight, work presumably began a fair bit before it was confirmed as a sequel. Hollow Knight: Silksong may have come out of the gates strong with a trailer and a developer diary video that shared details about the upcoming title, but fans have been a little worried about Team Cherry's 2D Metroidvania after months upon months of silence.
Many expected Hollow Knight: Silksong to feature in major video game showcases over the years, but players didn't have any substantial updates since December 2019, despite assurances from the developer that everything is progressing as planned. June 2022 saw a new trailer for Hollow Knight: Silksong and a tweet suggesting that gamers could expect to see the game sometime before June 2023, but so far no release date has been confirmed. Hollow Knight: Silksong could very well be following in Final Fantasy 16's footsteps and waiting until the last moment to provide players with the details and insights they've been craving, but Team Cherry is leaving it awfully late.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
