Hollow Knight: Silksong was officially announced so long ago that it would not be surprising if fans have forgotten about it by now. Still, many have not and are holding faithfully to the idea that it may still release this year. The Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase from last summer led fans to assume that it would launch within a year from that event. Starfield has since been delayed into September and therefore misses that 12-month window; it is more than possible that Silksong could take that as an excuse to step back also.
Silksong’s silence has been a boon for it nonetheless, because with fewer appearances or promises made, it is impossible for the game to blatantly disappoint fans until anything concrete is shared. Hopefully when Silksong does finally share a release window it will be one fans can rely on, because otherwise Team Cherry likely would not have said anything. This may have been the strategy employed in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s sparse marketing, which Silksong could be imitating.
Hollow Knight: Silksong Must Know How In-Demand It is
There are two immediately viable reasons why a game might not be indulging in marketing before its release: it is either concerned about the quality of what it currently has to show, or it is fully confident about what it has to show and can ride the popularity and discourse it already has. Highly anticipated games like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 could reveal a release date and launch successfully with absolutely no marketing behind them, for example, due to how much excitement is already built up around them.
This is an earned respect that fan communities can develop toward certain franchises and IPs. Because Hollow Knight is one of the most popular Metroidvanias to release in the last decade it is unsurprising that its sequel has as much of a following as it does, and the fact that only scraps of information have been shared since its announcement has furthered its intrigue.
Some games such as The Lord of the Rings: Gollum are not able to get away with such a lack of information. Even if it has a new release date and is trying to make amends by finally sharing gameplay, it might have already lost potential fans in the meantime. The other upside of not sharing any information is that if Hollow Knight: Silksong did need a delay at some point, Team Cherry could delay itself as much as it needs to while a release window has not been promised yet.
Silksong Could Follow Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Lack of Marketing
It has been six years since The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild released and fans are finally receiving its sequel. Ironically, Hollow Knight released around the same time, and there is still no release date for its respective sequel. It is unclear whether it would have been better for Team Cherry to wait until it knew how long it would need to work on Silksong before announcing it. Otherwise, announcing it could have been a marketing ploy in order to string fans along in a way that would make its eventual release date reveal that much more special. Either way, Tears of the Kingdom has had little in the way of marketing besides short, obscure trailers that reveal next to nothing about its narrative or gameplay.
It was only recently that Nintendo aired a 10-minute gameplay showcase for Tears of the Kingdom, which revealed a lot of new abilities, including creative vehicle and weapon customization. It was only a matter of time before something new was shared with its release coming in a month and a half. Maybe Tears of the Kingdom’s recent gameplay showcase will inspire Silksong to do the same, but fans should not hold their breath for anything Silksong-related.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is in development for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
