Despondent players rejoice, as Hollow Knight: Silksong is finally, truly, seriously almost here.
During a special presentation on Thursday during Gamescom 2025, Team Cherry revealed that Hollow Knight: Silksong is launching on Sept. 4, 2025.
As a Metroidvania title like its predecessor, Hollow Knight: Silksong tasks players with exploring the land of Pharloom. Players control Hornet, the princess of Hallownest, which itself is the land that was the setting of the first Hollow Knight.
Hollow Knight is known for its high level of difficulty and vague storytelling, with the narrative unfolding in the background through vague clues as players explore a fallen kingdom of insects.
Hollow Knight: Silksong features over 200 foes in its "handcrafted" world, with the developers adding that there are over 40 bosses to conquer.
Hollow Knight: Silksong has had a long road to this point
Team Cherry's road to finishing Hollow Knight: Silksong has been a long one, with the small team — it was founded in 2014 by two people, and has only grown slightly in the years since — going quiet for long stretches of time.
According to a report from Bloomberg based on interviews with members of Team Cherry, this long development cycle mainly came down to the team working at their own pace, with the financial success of the first Hollow Knight (as of August 2025, it's now sold over 15 million copies) meaning the studio didn't have to stress or worry as much.
That means that while burnout or creative mishaps are a common story in the gaming industry, it's a set of problems that Team Cherry has managed to avoid across this seven-year development cycle.
After the team launched the original Hollow Knight in 2017 to critical acclaim and commercial success, the studio also worked on a number of DLC packs. Hollow Knight: Silksong was initially planned to be one of these expansions, but rapidly grew in scope until in February 2019, Team Cherry decided it would be best to launch it as an entirely-new game.
In 2022, the game was shown during the Xbox Games Showcase, with new gameplay footage alongside the confirmation that it would be available at launch through Xbox Game Pass.
Despite Microsoft's claim that every game shown during the showcase was slated to launch within the next 12 months, a large handful of titles were delayed, including Hollow Knight: Silksong.
"We did genuinely believe that was the case,” Team Cherry co-founder William Pellen says. “There was a period of two to three years when I thought it was going to come out within a year.”
Then, earlier in 2025, Hollow Knight: Silksong was briefly spotted during a highlight reel for titles coming to the Nintendo Switch 2, at which point Xbox happily reminded players it was also still launching through Xbox Game Pass.
Looking ahead, it sounds like the team is already thinking about DLC for Hollow Knight: Silksong.
“The most interesting thing now is what can we add to it next,” says Team Cherry co-founder Ari Gibson. “We got a plan. Admittedly, some of the plans for that stuff are kind of ambitious as well, but hopefully we can achieve some of it.”
Time will only tell if these DLC expansions end up taking on a life of their own and becoming a full game, much like Silksong did.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One,Windows PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch 2, and Nintendo Switch. It'll also be available day one in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
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