Hollow Knight: Silksong is "not in dev hell," says tester who finds fan cynicism "disheartening" but agrees developer Team Cherry "should be better" at communicating
Hollow Knight: Silksong, you may have noticed, is still not out. Developer Team Cherry is still working on the Metroidvania sequel some five years after it was revealed, and according to playtester and semi-regular Team Cherry correspondent Graig, it is very much "not in dev hell."
"Hi guys I literally know they are not in dev hell," Graig says in a Discord comment on Tuesday, June 18. Graig has – and has acknowledged – something of a reputation for troll posts, and apologized for flying off the handle in some previous Discord comments, like saying in December 2023 that "there simply are no fucking updates." But Team Cherry has apparently never had a problem with his reports, and his comments here are presented with a straight face.
"Every software dev cycle ever. Sets internal dates, misses them all the time. Literally a normal part of software dev," Graig adds. "You just don't hear about them because they don't announce them to the public. Again completely normal for every dev cycle."
Graig returned to Discord today, June 20, after his comments surfaced on the official Silksong subreddit and were, to put it mildly, quickly dismissed by many members of the community.
"Be me, say something that's true and something I thought would help people feel better," Graig says. "Get abused on r/silksong for it. It's kinda funny [because] I genuinely sympathize with them and have said so many times. I agree that [Team Cherry] communication should be better. Apparently, I'm a huge POS, though."
It's heartening to hear that Silksong is simply taking a long time rather than struggling to coalesce – my assumption regarding its long dev cycle has always been scope creep, especially given the jump from planned DLC to full game – but Graig says it can be "disheartening" to see Hollow Knight fans assume the worst.
"It really makes me want to disengage with something I have loved being a part of for seven years," he adds.
Discussion of Hollow Knight: Silksong remains as deadlocked as the game itself: with no official updates from Team Cherry in years, players can only speculate or rely on adjacent statements from folks like Graig, and almost every spike in discourse looks something like this. Good intentions and understandable frustration collide, and in the best case, the norm of total confusion is maintained.
There's been plenty of debate as to whether Silksong's agonizing silence has been an unintentional stroke of genius, but there's fair appetite for more communication from Team Cherry. Equally hyped indie sequel Hades 2 provides a useful but imperfect comparison: developer Supergiant routinely set expectations for the game's scope and timeline, launched in Early Access earlier this year, and has maintained regular communication about patches. Supergiant is a larger and more experienced studio and had the early access experience of the original Hades to build on, but at some point, you've got to wonder why we haven't heard anything from Team Cherry for years. Even a checking-in tweet would be a welcome salve.
We may well get Metroid Prime 4 before Silksong at this rate. Maybe 2025 will end up being the year that long-awaited sequels finally materialize. Team Cherry is, of course, free to cook for as long as it wants, but I do sympathize with fans growing increasingly disappointed with showcase no-shows.
