Hollow Knight: Silksongwas supposed to release in 2023, but things didn’t quite go according to plan. At the time, the idea had evolved beyond being a simple Kickstarter stretch-goal DLC, and developer Team Cherry was working on it as a full game of its own, earning it a trailer in 2019. The game would continue where the immensely popular MetroidvaniaHollow Knightleft off, this time following the needle-wielding fighter Hornet as she traversed around the treacherous lands of bugs and corruption.
Butaround 2020, the developer simply ceased posting updatesand responding tomessages on theHollow KnightKickstarterand elsewhere. What followed was nearly complete radio silence, with the exception of the game’s co-creator William Pellen, who continued to put up cryptic riddle-like posts, sharing wisdom like “A man who gets turned into a dog… for the last time” and “hmm. some differentLy coloured bones” [sic].
But despite what many fans feared, the silence didn’t mean thatSilksongwas dead. Instead, it was a brilliant move by Team Cherry to keep the hype alivewhile the team crafted their game out of the public’s scrutiny.
Silksong’s Marketing Keeps Hype High And Criticisms Low
Team Cherry’s Lack Of Silksong Updates May Have Been A Calculated Decision
To talk aboutSilksong,let’s take a moment to look at a different game.Borderlands 4revealed afull trailer in December 2024, announcing the game’s imminent release. The trailer was the first step in Gearbox’s campaign to build hype for the game, revealing more and more information over the subsequent months.
This, after all, is how most video game marketing campaigns work, making potential players aware of the game’s existence and showing them what the game has to offer. And of course, theBL4campaign is achieving these goals. But it’s also had an unfortunate side-effect:The more Gearbox shows off its game, the more fans are picking it apart and criticizing it, before they even have the chance to try it.
Looking back at Team Cherry,it’s easy to imagine the same thing happening toSilksong.The downside to going from a small Kickstarter campaign with just over 2,000 backers to selling nearly 7 million copies on Steam alone (according toLevvvel) is that the pressure for a followup was immense.Silksonghas to keep the same feel ofHollow Knightwhile still showing improvement and growth, and that’s not an easy task to complete with millions of fans watching you closely.
“Going from a small Kickstarter campaign with just over 2,000 backers to selling nearly 7 million copies on Steam alone… [means] the pressure for a followup was immense.”
To preventSilksongfrom enduring the same scrutiny asBorderlands 4,it seems that Team Cherry’s solution was to just not reveal anything about the game. Team Cherry’s lack of updatesavoids public scrutiny by giving the community the tiniest crumbs of info, and leaving them wanting more—instead of judging it before it’s out.
Silksong’s Smart Marketing Caters To Fans, Not Media
Keeping The Community Engaged, One Tiny Update At A Time
When Team Cherry wanted to getHollow Knightfans talking about the sequel again, they heavily hinted at a connection to April 2, which was when the Nintendo Direct had been scheduled for. All it took was Little Bomey changing his X avatar to the image of a piece of cake from a recipe dating to April 2, andthe community exploded with speculation.
It’s uncertain whether this was a calculated move or just Pellen acting on his own and being his usual mysterious self, especially as the team’s PR manager, Mathew “Leth” Griffin, had todeny it just a few days later. Either way, the move was brilliant and had the desired effect:Suddenly, after literal years of calm, theSilksongcommunity was buzzing with excitement.
There was some backlash over thestudio unfairly playing with fans, but the overall result was thatthe gaming community’s eyes all turned toSilksongonce again. Since then, fans have been looking at every single little detail posted by Team Cherry—yes, including the strangeX ramblings of Little Bomey—and keeping the hype train chugging right along.
“This kind of marketing ensures that the game and everything that the studio releases about it caters to the people, not the media.”
So far, since the game’s announcement in 2019, Team Cherry has shared a grand total ofone several-second clip in the Nintendo Direct, three new screenshots, and one sprite page—and fans have eaten up every new piece of information. The latest release, a sprite page shown off to celebrate thegame’s appearance at Melbourne’s ACMI museum, has given fans a lot of new information to play with, with many using the new images tobuild animations of Hornetand speculate on story and lore using just a handful of pixels.
And that’s really where the marketing genius lies: in Team Cherry’s ability to reach out directly to its community and give them a tidbit of information to last them weeks. This kind of marketing ensures thatthe game and everything that the studio releases about it caters to the people, not the media.
Silent Marketing Is A Double-Edged Sword
Not Keeping Fans Updated About Silksong Was A Brilliant But Risky Move
Of course, there are plenty of potential downsides and pitfalls for a marketing campaign centered around a lack of communication. The most obvious issue is that by not updating its dedicated community, Team Cherry risked alienating and upsetting its fans.GTA6is a great example of how silence doesn’t always work, as Rockstar’s lack of updates caused major concerns about whether the game wasgoing to be canceled or delayed.
In fact, theSilksongcommunity is similarly divided, withthe game’s Subreddit split down the middle into two factions of believers and doubters. But this friendly rivalry has actually helpedSilksongeven more, keeping the discussion moving with or without Team Cherry’s input. (There are even rumors that Griffith has infiltrated the community to seed the discussion.)
You could also argue thatbeing silent increases the risk of leaksand of fans creating an image of the game in their minds that is just not possible. This may lead to the community holding an idealized version of the game up on a pedestal that the actual game could never compete with.
The “silent method” marketing is definitely a double-edged sword, and one that could have backfired on Team Cherry. But ultimately, it’s allowed the team to concentrate on making the game without the input of external sources. This will allowHollow Knight:Silksongto be the most authentic form of itself, and stay true to Team Cherry’s original vision for the highly anticipated sequel toHollow Knight.
