It’s been over 700 days since we’ve heard anything about Silksong, and no-one’s really holding it together. Despite being a hook, line, and sinker-sequel to Hollow Knight, one of the most beloved Metroidvanias of the past decade, its ill-fated follow up has been basically absent since its announcement in 2019—coming up for breath only once in 2022 during an Xbox showcase.
It also didn’t make an appearance during Summer Game Fest, so for the last skongers still holding out hope, the Nintendo Direct stood as a final bastion of news. I say that—the pre-show atmosphere was a little grim, with Silksong subreddit user E1331 being publicly sacrificed via hanging for taking a bite out of the Team Cherry logo by the mods. Other memes were less corporal punishment, but similarly pessimistic.
As you’ve surmised by the headline, the Direct came, went, and vanished into the night and—sadly—there was no news, despite one determined viewer threatening to “give birth if they don’t announce it”. I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate YouTube commenter Cody & Zach Antz on their new blessed child, who will presumably graduate before Silksong comes out.
In another era, I would characterise the community as a group of scrappy, die-hard underdogs with their fists raised and a ‘that all you got?’ spluttering from their split, bloody lips. The feeling I get right now, however, is like watching a very sad clown standing knee-deep in a puddle, while the same truck does laps around the block to further douse them in rainwater. Speaking of clowns, that’s the prevailing theme.
“Dudes the insanity is funny and all but I can’t even lie to you man, the sheer disappointment in getting no news in ANY showcases this year, zero communication from Team Cherry and their very vague hints are release (or not) is starting to make this stuff feel really unfunny and just straight up disappointing,” writes one player in a thread explaining why the subreddit’s mods, who I imagine are currently under siege, have been manually approving all text posts.
“We got Metroid Prime 4 before Silksong,” writes another numb player. For context, Metroid Prime 4 was announced in 2017, reportedly restarted development in 2019, and has barely had a whisper until now and, yeah, that’s gotta sting.
Listen. Silksong’s probably coming out, (maybe, probably). What we saw back in 2022 seemed like it was coming along well—but there was such a small, tiny, optimistic sliver of my heart that hoped beyond hope we’d get some news today. Maybe it really is releasing in 9998, after all.
