While many highly anticipated indie games are set to release throughout this year, the most talked about indie title continues to be Hollow Knight: Silksong. However, Team Cherry recently revealed that the expected release of Hollow Knight: Silksong will not be happening. While the developers previously expected it to launch in the first half of 2023, it appears the game needs more time to be fully polished.
Hollow Knight: Silksong was announced as the sequel to Hollow Knight in 2019 and has been in development for the past four years. It may go without saying that fan expectations are quite high due to the positive reception of the original. Sadly, Team Cherry has been largely tight-lipped regarding a concrete release date, though it does appear they are optimistic about the game releasing in the second half of 2023.
Hollow Knight: Silksong Might Be Overshadowing the Indie Scene
As a result of many people eagerly awaiting the release of Hollow Knight: Silksong, the Metroidvania action-platformer has become a gravity well for indie games releasing in 2023. The longer this indie game remains unreleased, the more attention is focused on it. Even now, fans are hoping that further details on the sequel will be released at this summer's Xbox Games Showcase.
With so much focus on Hollow Knight: Silksong, it has left some wondering if the sequel is overshadowing the rest of the indie genre. Prior to its launch, Elden Ring had a similar effect on the video game industry with people enthusiastically awaiting a release date only to see the game be delayed, too.
Memes about how the Soulslike title would never actually release became normal, but this rarely shows any detrimental effect on games like Elden Ring that were extremely well-received nonetheless. The main difference surrounding the hype for Hollow Knight: Silksong versus Elden Ring is that the latter was not created by an indie company.
Unfortunately, for an indie game to distance itself from the gravity well that Hollow Knight: Silksong has become may be difficult. Small companies that plan to release a game around the same time frame may be met with less discussion and fewer concurrent players. The only solution here may be to try for an earlier, or much later, launch date.
For instance, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom saw millions of players simultaneously flocking to explore Hyrule on its May 12 release date. This sparked a debate about whether indie developers could not—or should not—announce any news about their own games on this day. It was also largely agreed upon that trying to debut another game around the same time would be tough.
On the other hand, many games that share or explore similar elements to Hollow Knight: Silksong can benefit from its popularity. The recently released game Rusted Moss, a hybrid twin-shooter Metroidvania is one such example, with a storyline focused on fairy folklore and a uniquely designed world that observes players grappling about the map. The traversal mechanics in Rusted Moss have been compared to Hollow Knight: Silksong and as such the game may have seen an increase in players due to these similarities.
Of course, none of this is to say that Hollow Knight: Silksong does not deserve to be one of the most highly anticipated games of 2023. It is unfortunate that the game has become such a powerful black hole that it continues to dominate the indie scene, though, and a confirmed release date in the near future will hopefully give other indie games room to breathe.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is currently in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
