‘Hollow Knight: Silksong’ is causing other games to delay their own launch

Hollow Knight: Silksong developers Team Cherry threw gamers into a frenzy last month, announcing that the highly anticipated indie game will finally be released on Sept. 4. Hordes of fans have been waiting for Silksong since Team Cherry first announced the Hollow Knight sequel 2019, the action adventure platformer holding the title of most wishlisted game on Steam. Yet up until this August, there had been few updates or indications as to when it might arrive.

As such, fans are incredibly excited about Silksong getting a release date, especially one that’s so imminent. Such excitement has been further stoked by the news that Silksong will cost just $19.99 — a price fans overwhelmingly consider a steal.

In fact, the hype around Silksong has been so enormous that numerous other games have pushed back their own release dates in order to avoid the competition. With countless gamers itching to get their hands on Silksong this week, it’ll be tough for other new games to gain attention.

Here are a few indie games that have explicitly cited Silksong as the reason why they’re delaying their own launches, listed in order of their new release date. Please remember them when you’re taking a break from fighting your way through Silksong‘s bug kingdom.

Little Witch in the Woods

The full version of Sunny Side Up’s cute witchcraft simulator Little Witch in the Woods was originally scheduled to launch on Sept. 4. The team quickly postponed its release to Sept. 15 within days of Team Cherry’s announcement.

“[S]hortly after our announcement [of our Sept. 4 release date], we learned that Hollow Knight: Silksong — a highly anticipated new title of a masterpiece in the gaming industry — is launching on the same day,” wrote Sunny Side Up. “Silksong is a game we look up to with awe as developers, and eagerly anticipate as players. Given its immense influence, we fear that launching Little Witch in the Woods on the same day would not only dishearten our dedicated team but also disappoint our devoted audience.”

Sunny Side Up accompanied the news with an illustration of Little Witch in the Woods‘ protagonist lying on the ground defeated, the shadow of Silksong’s protagonist Hornet looming over her.

Baby Steps

While Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy was its own viral sensation, Foddy’s next project Baby Steps is wisely opting out of going head to head with Silksong. Publisher Devolver Digital announced that the walking simulator has vacated its previous Sept. 8 launch date, and will now be released on Sept. 23. 

Developers Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, and Foddy haven’t said themselves that Silksong is the cause of the delay. However, Devolver Digital’s trailer featuring a giant statue of Silksong‘s Hornet makes the point abundantly clear.

“[Baby Steps protagonist] Nate is allergic to hornets,” wrote Devolver Digital.

CloverPit

Self-described “rogue-lite slot machine nightmare” and “never-ending debt simulator” CloverPit was initially scheduled for launch on Sept. 3, but will now wait a few weeks to release on Sept. 26.

“Some of you might already have guessed the reason for the delay: Hollow Knight: Silksong,” wrote Panik Arcade. “Silksong is the most anticipated and wishlisted game on all of Steam and we think people will love this game and play it right at launch (including us) but that also means it will overshadow all games launching close to it. So if we stick to our original date we would risk the launch of CloverPit a fair bit.”

Demonschool

Necrosoft Games’ Demonschool had had the start of school delayed, pushing its original Sept. 3 release date back over a month. The Shin Megami Tensei inspired turn-based tactical roleplaying game will now launch Nov. 19.

“[T]he Ysbryd team strongly believes we would not be doing our game any favors by wading into waters we can clearly see are blood red,” announced Demonschool‘s publisher Ysbryd Games. “If the September period is going to be Silksong‘s moment, then we need to be elsewhere on the calendar to give Demonschool its own moment to be seen and talked about meaningfully.”

“This was not our choice but we understand why the choice was made,” wrote Necrosoft Games. “We aren’t mad at Ysbryd but at the situation. Dropping the GTA of indie games with 2 weeks notice makes everyone freak out…. Still would’ve liked to fight Silksong.”