To delay or not to delay? Hollow Knight: Silksong release date puts indie developers in an awkward spot

Continuing to prove itself the Grand Theft Auto 6 of indie games, Hollow Knight: Silksong’s release date announcement has had an impact on other indie devs who already had release dates set around the same time. If you missed it, yesterday morning, Team Cherry announced the release date for their highly anticipated sequel action Metroidvania, Hollow Knight: Silksong. The date falls on September 4th, just a week and a half away at this point, and many other development teams are shifting their plans accordingly.

Hollow Knight: Silksong’s release date is causing other developers to change plans

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Steam’s most wishlisted game is going to become many players’ focus for a few weeks. Apparently, the day after the announcement, the original Hollow Knight even hit its highest-ever concurrent player count on Steam, so it’s not just a meme; people are genuinely excited. Some developers are shifting their release dates, while others, like the developers of Peak, are adding cheeky farewell messages to their game. On the main menu of Peak, the sticky note apparently reads: “We hope you enjoy PEAK for the next two weeks until you all move on to Silksong,” according to a screenshot shared on Reddit.

The Peak developers being cheeky as always.Peak, Developers: Landfall & Aggro Crab. Screenshot posted to Reddit by CommodoreFiftyFour

As much as fans would have lost their minds over a shadow drop of Hollow Knight: Silksong this week, it is genuinely considerate of Team Cherry to give a two-week warning. Earlier this year, when The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was shadow-dropped, there were developers caught off guard, suddenly competing with one of the biggest game releases of the year. One developer even decided to do a “re-release” about a month later when it turned out that the launch of their small game happened to coincide with the launch of Oblivion. Giving developers at least two weeks to make a decision helps avoid situations like this, at least a little.

Thanks to reporting from Aftermath, we’ve learned that CloverPit, the clever roguelike slot machine game, will be delaying the release for about three weeks. Panik Arcade, the development team behind CloverPit made the announcement on Steam with a post titled: “We have to delay CloverPit a bit (Silksong lol).” But another developer, Aeternum Game Studios, has announced that their next game, Aeterna Lucis, initially planned to launch in September, is now delayed to 2026, according to a social media post from the team. This particular case might be more warranted, given that it’s also a Metroidvania and that audiences may overlap.

Though, the team doesn’t appear to have any hard feelings, taking a moment in their statement to thank Team Cherry: “…thanks to them, the Metroidvania genres is more alive than ever and, in fact, they were one of the main inspirations that led us to create Aeterna Noctis and the entire saga now in development.” So, if they had to move out of the way of something, it probably feels better that it’s Hollow Knight: Silksong rather than GTA 6 or Oblivion.

Not all games are making the move just yet, though, and there’s precedent for that decision. Sometimes, the quality of a game can shine through anything, like when Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launched just two days after Oblivion and still put up incredible sales numbers on its first day. However, that game did have much more visibility and marketing compared to smaller indie titles. So, while the launch of 2025’s most hyped game will be a huge moment, it will be fascinating to see what other ripple effects it has.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

September 4, 2025

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• indie games
• Team Cherry
• Hollow Knight (series)