In the hours leading up to various gaming news events – like an indie event or a Nintendo Direct – you might see the rumblings of people online discussing a game called Hollow Knight: Silk Song. Some share digital calling circles built with emojis and dedicate them to the game in the hope that it will appear in a showcase; Others simply express their excitement by sharing memes ahead of the event. During a digital event itself, you’ll see viewers spam the live chat with messages like “SKONG (with four air horn emojis)” or “WHERE SILKSONG???!!??” Sometimes the phrase “Silksong” will trend online even before one of these events because so many people share their enthusiasm.
All this commotion just because fans really want to hear some news Hollow Knight: Silk Song. The game – what fans refer to Silk song – is the planned sequel to a game called Hollow Knight. Developer team Cherry first announced the successor to its beloved Metroidvania in 2019; since then, it got a splashy trailer in 2022, but no concrete release date. And now the dedicated fan base has turned the wait for the game into one giant viral meme.
What is Hollow Knight: Silksong?
To understand the enduring popularity of Silk songwe must look back at the game that preceded it: Hollow Knight. Developer Team Cherry first released the popular Metroidvania in 2017. At the time, the game amazed fans with its fantastic insectoid world and precise combat. These elements, combined with the rich environmental storytelling, resulted in a gem of a game. Polygon called it “hands down the best Metroidvania ever made.”
Image: Team Kers
Hollow Knight has amassed more than its fair share of devoted fans, so when Team Cherry surprised players with the announcement of a full-length sequel called Silk song, it created a lot of buzz. The developers promised an original story, new bugs to meet and new worlds to explore. What’s more is that fans could play as Hornet, a mysterious but beloved side character from the main game.
Fans were excitedly waiting for more news about the upcoming game, but nothing came. Years passed and Team Cherry stopped releasing trailers or news. With each passing gaming news event, it seemed all the more inevitable that players would get a release date, or a new trailer, or at least another look at the project.
The developer eventually shared a new look at the game during an Xbox Showcase in 2022, but even then the game had no stated release date. However, according to Xbox, the games in that showcase would be released within the next twelve months Silk song should have been released in 2023. But that didn’t happen. On May 9, 2023, Matthew Griffin of Team Cherry appeared broke the news on X (formerly Twitter) that the game wasn’t ready for release yet and that fans should expect “more details from (Team Cherry) as we get closer to release.”
That was the team’s last major update, and since then fans have been kept in the dark, still repeatedly expressing their hearts’ desires for the game online.
Why do fans scream about Silksong online?
In the years since the first announcement, he expressed a desire to see Silk song has become a viral piece online. Right now, you can’t watch a gaming news stream without people mentioning it Silk song. People on social media are sharing fan art, memes, and reaction posts all in anticipation of the game, or joking about the fact that there might not be more news about it. The enthusiastic fandom can draw the ire of other viewers in chats, and Silk song fans have inadvertently turned others on to the game because they so regularly make the game’s title popular on X. All because people just want to express a desire to see this game.
Polygon reached out to Team Cherry to ask what it was like to see fans talking about the game. We will update this article if we hear anything.
Hollow Knight Millions have been sold, but that is not necessarily the cause of this reaction Silk song. It’s just that this game – which is a truly fantastic game to play – has inspired a super-devoted cult following. The people who just love the game Real love it, and they want to see the next game released.
In this sense, Silk song just comes across as the next generation version of the whole ‘localizing’ thing Mother 3movement. Nintendo has never released an official English localization of Mother 3 in North America, but people have been asking for it for years. To this day, fans still beg Nintendo on social media to release the game, and several fans have regularly performed IRL stunts to raise awareness of the game. Be one Mother 3 fan is almost as much about wanting Mother 3 to be officially released in the US as it actually plays or enjoys the content of the game.
All that being said, Silk song has a much better chance of being released than the official English version of Mother 3. Team Cherry has assured fans that while the team may not have revealed too much, development is progressing. So I guess fans will have to rely on their calling circles until then.