Hollow Knight: Silksong is finally releasing on September 4, 2025. That may be two years after it was originally promised for release, but the news doesn’t come with any less hype surrounding it.
But why did it take so long for Silksong, the sequel to the highly successful Hollow Knight, to release? According to Team Cherry, it’s because they were having too much fun building the game.
In a new feature story from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Team Cherry Co-Founders Ari Gibson and William Pellen spoke about what it was like creating the game, the delays, the pending release, and more.
The lengthy gap between Hollow Knight and Silksong wasn’t the result of any sort of studio struggles. Instead, the project grew far larger than originally planned. What began as a small expansion centered on Hornet evolved into a full-scale sequel with multiple towns, a deep quest system, and a world even bigger than the original.
Team Cherry’s small size meant progress naturally took longer, but the developers say the process was consistently joyful. Their creative workflow encouraged them to experiment and add new ideas, which kept expanding the scope of the game.
“We’re very fortunate that we have a development method that is so enjoyable,” Gibson told Schreier. “Not exactly sure how we stumbled into that. Everything comes together quickly. You can see results fast. Ideas turn into something that exist in the game almost immediately before your eyes, and that’s very satisfying. And that allows you to go off on those tangents and meet weird characters because someone’s off-handedly mentioned a weird character as an idea and the other person’s laughed, and that’s enough.“
Unlike many studios, Team Cherry wasn’t pressured to rush out a release. Hollow Knight’s massive success—over 15 million copies sold—provided financial freedom, allowing them to polish Silksong extensively and ensure the entire game met the same high standard.
After releasing regular updates, the studio went quiet to focus on the game, believing regular updates would only frustrate fans. The end result is the game they wanted to make, even if it took years longer than expected.
Now, Hollow Knight: Silksong is coming in September. However, that’s not the end for the game. Both Gibson and Pellen say they already are working on plans for what’s next for the game.
“Launching it is obviously quite exciting,” Pellen said. “What comes after for us is equally as exciting.”
In his hands-on preview of the game, Insider Gaming’s Andy Highton said that Silksong is “the game you’ve been waiting for is worth the wait.”
For more Insider Gaming, check out the reveal trailer for Halloween: The Game, coming in 2026.
Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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