Silksong: Seven Years of Waiting and the Vanishing Developer Phenomenon

February 2019. Team Cherry released the announcement trailer for Hollow Knight: Silksong. Hornet, the former mini-boss of the original, becomes the lead character. The trailer gets millions of views in a single day. Everyone is certain: release is imminent.

May 2026. More than seven years have passed. The game still hasn't come out.

What We Know

Team Cherry is a tiny three-person studio in Adelaide. Their communication is minimal: rare social posts, Steam page updates, and near-total silence about actual development progress. At E3 2023, the game appeared in a Microsoft Direct as 'coming this year to Xbox Game Pass' — and vanished again. No date was ever given.

The Psychology of Waiting

Silksong has long transcended being just an 'announced game.' A subculture has formed around it: fan theories, memes, and delay jokes have become part of community identity. The r/silksong subreddit has over 200,000 members who mostly wait, joke, and wait again.

Why This Matters for the Industry

Silksong is a rare case where a tiny studio carries reputational weight comparable to major publishers. Team Cherry hasn't run extensive pre-order campaigns or taken investment capital with deadlines attached. Silence costs dearly: every month without news breeds thousands of rumors. Silksong will ultimately be either a triumph or a cautionary tale about the importance of communication alongside product quality.