Hollow Knight: Silksong's release date has shockingly influenced several game delays
At Gamescom , we finally learned that Hollow Knight: Silksong would launch on September 4 . While fans were relieved by that announcement, it also caused several game developers to scramble and delay their games at the last minute to avoid competing with Hollow Knight.
On Monday, Necrosoft Games and Ysbryd announced that they would be delaying their Persona-inspired tactics RPG Demonschool from September 3 toNovember 19. That announcement follows delays for other indie games like CloverPit , Faeland, and Aeterna Lucis.
Why is Hollow Knight: Silksong causing developers to delay their games?
Developers are avoiding Hollow Knight: Silksong like it's Grand Theft Auto VI
Although delays aren't uncommon in the game industry, they usually happen primarily because a game needs some additional time for balancing and bug-fixing. Most recently, that reasoning was given for Dying Light: The Beast's delay . It's much less common for games to delay themselves to avoid another title entirely.
Reports have suggested that many developers are anxious about launching gamew around Grand Theft Auto VI. The surprise release date announcement of Hollow Knight: Silksong seems to have caused a similar stir, especially for indie studios who feel like they are directly competing with Team Cherry's latest.
Companies like Ysbryd Games directly call out Hollow Knight: Silksong in its statement on Demonschool's delay (as posted on Gematsu ), highlighting how important visibility is for indie games and how Hollow Knight: Sliksong's launch puts that in jeopardy:
We have to remind ourselves that gaining visibility for Demonschool is our main goal. Thus, the Ysbryd team strongly believes we would not be doing our game any favors by wading into waters we can clearly see are blood red. 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.
These sentiments are reflected in other comments. Faeland studio Talegames posted on X that it wants the 1.0 release of the Zelda-inspired game to come out "at a time when it can receive the attention and care it deserves."
Meanwhile, Aeterna Lucis developer Aeternum Game Studios argues that "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."
Essentially, visibility is already a difficult issue that indie game developers have to deal with. Countless games launch across PC and consoles every day, so it's already quite difficult to stand out.
With all the buzz it has received online, Hollow Knight: Silksong is poised to have a massive launch. Releasing around that could potentially drown out any chances for the less popular indies to find success. That's just too big a risk to take during a time when some studios are struggling, even when their games are successful .
It's a tricky situation all around, and a direct result of Team Cherry announcing the release date so close to launch. Thankfully, all the indie developers seem to be taking the extra time to polish their games, so hopefully this results in even better games for us to play in addition to Hollow Knight: Silksong.
