Hollow Knight: Silksong’s release date is the indie game equivalent of Rockstar finally putting out GTA 6
Hollow Knight: Silksong’s surprise release already has other games scrambling
Sign in to your Polygon account
With its predecessor selling 15 million copies and a release trailer that racked up 3.3 million views in less than 24 hours, news of the impeding release of Hollow Knight: Silksong was practically destined to have a massive impact on the gaming industry. Already, the hand-drawn indie has pushed other multiple games to acknowledge its importance in one way or another, especially if the title in question had the misfortune of a planned release date around the same time as September 4.
So far, at least two games that were originally planned for early September are being pushed back, and they’re both Hollow Knight: Silksong as the culprit.
“We poured our hearts into our little game, so we want to give it the best possible shot,” reads an announcement by the devs behind CloverPit, a horror game that’s like a cross between Balatro and Buckshot Roulette. CloverPit isn’t yet another Soulslike vying for attention, but it is a roguelite, which means that both audiences welcome challenging games where dying is a core part of the experience. Originally planned for September 3, CloverPit is now coming out on September 26.
In other cases, there’s a stronger overlap between games. Aeterna Lucis, for example, is a tough metroidvania with an emphasis on fast-paced combat, and it’s a part of a series that’s been compared to Hollow Knight by fans. Beyond the similarities in genre, Aeterna Lucis also features an ornate, gothic art style packed with plenty of platforms and illustrated enemies that sometimes wear white masks. The team behind Aeterna Lucis have been working on it for four years, and consider it their most ambitious title to date.
“After the announcement of Silksong, we are fully aware that our game wouldn’t have the visibility it deserves,” reads an announcement by the studio. “Competing with a phenomenon of that scale would not only be unfair to our team’s effort, but also to you, the community, who expect to experience this adventure under the best possible conditions.”
The folks behind Aeterna do say that Silksong isn’t the only reason their game is being pushed back. The studio is also having trouble securing development kits for all the platforms they are eyeing for release, so they’ve made the decision to delay the game until sometime in 2026.
Probably, these won’t be the last games that experience the shock waves of Silksong‘s sudden release date. The people behind the massive Steam hit Peak, ever the jokers, acknowledged this reality in-game after implementing some bug fixes. Players who are trying out the Mesa update are finding a note that says that the developers know players will probably take a break from the game in two weeks, when Team Cherry’s hyped sequel is finally out:
The phenomenon of delays tied to the release of major games is somewhat rare, as most titles don’t have the type of cultural cache to warrant such a strong response from competitors. Most recently, when the world still believed that Grand Theft Auto 6 might still come out in 2025, there was chatter that major publishers had the panic button on standby should Rockstar’s open-world game get scheduled for a similar timeframe as their releases. One studio boss reportedly compared the satiric series’ release date to the equivalent of a meteor, and publishers wanted to “stay clear of the blast zone” that would likely be active for weeks before and after the release of GTA 6.
Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s release date has a softer vibe to it compared to the behemoth that is GTA 6, though. Nowhere is this more evident than the nod of respect that the Aeternum team pays to Silksong in their delay announcement.
“We also want to take this opportunity to thank Team Cherry,” the statement reads. “There’s no need to wish them luck — we know that Silksong will be a success and a masterpiece. Instead of rivalry, what we feel is gratitude: thanks to them, the Metroidvania genre is more alive than ever and, in fact, they were one of the main inspirations that led us to create Aeterna Noctis and the entire saga now in development.”
Whether or not the release date of other games truly changes the outcome for other games is still an open question, though. By some estimates, the strongest indicator of long-term success is the level of interest a game can garner prior to release. While it’s easy to blame other forces for taking away potential players, games that release around the same time as a highly anticipated title tend to perform about as well as their forecasts predict. Games that came out around the same time as Elden Ring didn’t seem to do better or worse for it. It probably depends on the game, though. The release date of Horizon Zero Dawn coinciding with uber series like The Legend of Zelda or Star Wars has become a meme, but it’s not like Sony’s open-world franchise died due to an unfortunate release date: 38 million copies is nothing to sneeze at.
But game developers are people, too. Moving the release date might not entirely be motivated by the desire to ensure that their game performs better, even if that explanation takes up the most airtime. In their announcement, CloverPit‘s creators say they’re looking forward to playing Silksong just like everyone else. And let’s be real: It’s probably hard to orchestrate the release of a game when you’re trying to beat that one pesky Silksong boss!
