Hollow Knight: Silksong Community Is Pinning a Lot of Hope on Next Week’s Nintendo Direct

While some communities (like the Tomodachi Life fans) are having an absolute blast following today’s Nintendo Direct, others aren’t doing so hot. Specifically, I’m referring to the Hollow Knight: Silksong folks, who are once again putting on their clown makeup after no new trailer for the long-anticipated Hollow Knight sequel surfaced at the showcase.

Fortunately, there’s another one next week.

Look, the Silksong community has been a hot mess of anticipation and disappointment for a while. Pop into the subreddit or community Discord on a given day, and you’ll be overwhelmed with constant memes and “silkposts” fantasizing, predicting, and joking about a game that seems like it will simply never arrive. We covered their antics last year, when a pair of back-to-back Directs similarly sent the community reeling, and again in January when a photo of chocolate cake turned into a frantic search for an ARG that never was. At this point, it’s honestly hard to tell from the outside looking in how much serious disappointment is involved here, and how much is just a tight-knit community of fans having a laugh every time a new showcase is announced.

But there is, admittedly, something a little more pressing about this next showcase. Hollow Knight originally released for PC, but its climb to fame really kicked into gear when it launched on Nintendo Switch the following year, which has caused many to associate it with Nintendo’s consoles moreso than any of the others it’s released on. There’s also a sense of grandeur about the showcase next week, specifically: it’s a Nintendo Direct intended to show off the Nintendo Switch 2, likely both the hardware and possibly also several launch titles. What better place for Silksong to re-debut? While there will naturally be a number of first-party games there, Hollow Knight fans are hoping against hope that Silksong has proven anticipated and popular enough to warrant a spot at such a massive showcase…and, critically, that the game is finally ready for prime time.

Are Silksong fans likely about to have their hopes dashed yet again for something like the 50th time since the game was announced? I dunno, probably! There are a few other indicators that Silksong might be nearing some sort of release date announcement though. There was a passing reference to it about a week ago in an Xbox Wire post on indies, though that may have just been a cheeky joke. More interestingly, there have been some recent backend changes to the game’s listing on Steam, including a copyright year update. But we’ve also just spent several years getting overhyped for no reason about Silksong getting listed and delisted from various console storefronts randomly. So who knows, really?

All we do know, for absolute certain, is what Team Cherry marketing and publishing chief Matthew ‘Leth’ Griffin said back in January after the cake incident. “Yes the game is real, progressing, and will release.” All we can do now is sit back, wait, and dream of what it will be like living in a post-Silksong world.

Get that clown make-up ready for next week, folks!

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.