So, Hollow Knight: Silksong might be closer than we thought, after all…

Here we go again, but don’t blame me for feeling hopeful: Hollow Knight: Silksong is getting a “special announcement” next Thursday, 10:30 AM EST, at Gamescom. The information was first reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier and then Geoff Keighley himself, earlier today in the show’s live opening, confirmed the game is coming out “this year”. Nintendo and Xbox will both have playable demos of the game too, apparently.

It’s been a long minute since we last heard from Silksong: originally announced in February, 2019, Team Cherry’s supposed magnum opus has faced delays and a protracted development cycle that turned it into a gaming meme. And yet, here we are, with bated breath, expecting something to come up about it. Also, a new batch of images came out today, adding fuel to what’s already a fiery inferno of expectations.

So, while we’re quietly mumbling “please, please, please let this be the one” under our breaths, let’s circle back to how we got here in the first place.

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How Hollow Knight: Silksong came to be

Before it’s announcement as a standalone game, Hollow Knight: Silksong was a planned DLC centered on Hornet, a secondary character from the previous title. As is the case with many projects in this industry, the DLC grew too large to be contained as a mere content expansion, so its scope got a major rework, becoming a full sequel.

Since 2019, the project has ballooned into a considerably larger game than its predecessor: Team Cherry described Silksong as containing well over 150 new enemies and bosses (later cited as 165+), a much larger and more interconnected world with areas such as “Greymoor” singled out, a new tool-based crafting economy, formal quest boards, and alternate currencies.

These, mind you, are all small pieces that largely contributed to the game’s hype, not only within its community but also for people who were not that into Hollow Knight in the first place (I’d like to include myself on the latter, thank you very much).

Why so many delays, though?

It is important to note that, judging by all the available information so far, Hollow Knight: Silksong faces many delays caused by context. The previous game major success removed any financial constraints developer Team Cherry might’ve had, allowing them to keep adding more and more content (thus, increasing the game’s size and its development time)—since the company was not as hard-pressed by deadlines, they could “let loose”, creatively speaking.

On the other hand, despite all of its success and fame, Team Cherry is not a major studio: according to Hollow Knight: Silksong’s own website, the company is composed of three people—far too small a number to deliver such a major, promising game in the same capacity as, say, BioWare, Insomniac or Sucker Punch, to name a few.

This is not a jab on their talent (I mean, they did deliver the first Hollow Knight, to say the least), but rather, at the timing constraints: while they obviously are capable of creating a major title such as Silksong, there’s no way they’d have the same operational capacity as any other major studio—the majority which, mind you, have financial backing from top-tier publishers.

So, while it may seem like a case of overpromising and underdelivering, it’s safe to assume Team Cherry’s conservative approach on communications regarding the project was just them playing it safe. Also, let us consider the fact that Hollow Knight: Silksong is coming out pretty much everywhere (again: the game’s official page lists PS4, PS5, Xbox Game Pass, Switch and Switch 2, as well as PC—the latter, on three different storefronts), which requires major adaptation and polishing.

While we don’t know the exact “how” and “why” the game faced so many delays, this too can be answered next Thursday, as Bloomberg is teasing a major story piece exactly on that topic—probably to come out alongside whatever announcement Gamescom has in store about the game.

So where are we at right now: Gamescom expectations and beyond

Multiple outlets and official listings indicate Silksong will be on site at Gamescom 2025 with playable builds at partner booths — notably Xbox and Nintendo, as we said earlier — and that Team Cherry will make a focused announcement during Gamescom week (reporting points to a Thursday update, 10:30 AM EST).

Out of all of this, the demo is the most significant development: it’s the first broadly available hands-on opportunity since E3 2019 and will be the first large-scale public test of Hornet’s mechanics and the game’s systems.

But even more so, context is key: back in 2019, the E3 demo of that year was from a game that just got announced. Gamescom 2025 will probably show a different Hollow Knight: Silksong outing—one that is likely more polished, more closely related to the final product and, more importantly, one that is ready to face public scrutiny.

If Team Cherry is sticking its neck out like this, six years after the game’s original announcement, it is heavily implied that the game will indeed come around later this year.

We’d also just like to point out: it seems our predictions about Gamescom 2025 were right on the money, as far as Hollow Knight: Silksong is concerned.

TL;DR: the essential stuff about Hollow Knight: Silksong latest developments