Hornet jumping around a level in Hollow Knight: Silksong

It wasn't a dream. You didn't imagine it. No one made it up. It happened.

On Thursday, Team Cherry revealed that Hollow Knight: Silksong, the long-awaited follow-up to Hollow Knight, one of the most highly-regarded video games ever made, is finally coming out. And it's just around the corner on Thursday, September 4, 2025. It's been nearly a decade in the making, and it's finally here.

Ahead of Silksong's release date in just about two weeks at the time of this writing, here's everything we know right now about the sequel to an all-time masterpiece. Consider this your handy "how-to" guide of sorts for Silksong.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. You're trolling. There's no way this is real.

I swear on all that is holy and on every grave you could imagine, I am NOT trolling. No one is baiting you with Rick Astley music videos. Hollow Knight: Silksong is real, dearest reader. It is finished. To reiterate, it is, indeed, coming out on Thursday, September 4, 2025. Our long (international) nightmare is over. Start preparing accordingly.

I don't believe you. How am I supposed to believe that this game is finally out of development hell? What am I going to do with all the clown makeup I have in storage?

Well, I can't really help you with the clown makeup part. That sounds like a personal problem. Maybe save it for the next highly anticipated game that gets delayed and teased indefinitely? I'm positive there will be another, and you, among others, will be more ready than the rest of us.

Anyway, believe me.

I'm still coming to terms with Silksong being tangible and almost within our grasp. We've been burned too many times since 2018. With that said, I feel better knowing that Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who, as we all know, usually gets better "inside look" development scoops than anyone in the business, released a "why did this take forever to make?" feature story about the game... with tons of quotes from Team Cherry itself.

All this to say: Folks, Silksong is real. You can let your guard down. I promise.

OK, OK. Gotcha. So, uh, why did Silksong take forever to finish?

Let me clarify something here.

I know it's been a while since we last heard from them, but let's remember that Australian company Team Cherry mainly consists of three people: Ari Gibson, William Pellen, and Jack Vine. They may have occasionally enlisted an extra hand or two for help, but when push came to shove, it was just three people. For a game where every image is hand-drawn. For a monster-sized game with impeccable balance that needs all of its animations and mechanics finely-tuned to a tee. And they have to keep adjusting it. And they have to keep testing it. And it takes up their entire life at intermittent points.

They weren't making some simplistic eight-bit game. They were creating the highly anticipated follow-up to one of the best games ever made. Expectations were and remain high.

That's a lot of work, effort, energy, and pressure to take on for a team of a hundred people, let alone the games industry's veritable Three Musketeers. I know we've all been eagerly waiting for Silksong for a long time, but give Team Cherry some grace. This wasn't easy. Far from it, in fact.

That makes sense. How did Team Cherry explain what happened again?

As for their explanation, Silksong was never really in development hell, contrary to popular belief.

According to Gibson, they needed all this time to finish the game. Which, when you know the complete context of the situation, shouldn't be surprising.

More from Bloomberg:

The lengthy production wasn’t the result of development challenges or obstacles, they said. They just needed all these years to ensure that Silksong was exactly the game they wanted to make.

“It was never stuck or anything,” Gibson said. “It was always progressing. It’s just the case that we’re a small team, and games take a lot of time. There wasn’t any big controversial moment behind it.”

Wait. Wasn't Silksong originally supposed to be a Hollow Knight expansion?

That's correct. Team Cherry had planned for gamers to return to the game's universe (in 2019) as Hornet, one of the main characters from the first game. But once they started having fun with its development, it grew way too big and way too fast. Team Cherry eventually realized that Silksong should be a proper sequel with the requisite time and care needed for a full-fledged game.

Any teasers along the way that made us think it was farther along were unfortunate mistakes of a game that wasn't nearly ready. They started something and wanted to see it through. And, of course, with Silksong being a sequel, it's bigger and so much more comprehensive than its predecessor. So, this all took on a life of its own.

More from Bloomberg:

“Even at that point [2019] we were recognizing that it was going to become another giant thing to rival the scale of Hollow Knight or probably exceed it,” [Ari] Gibson said. “And then because of how we work, obviously the world ended up being just as big or bigger. And the quest system existed. And the multiple towns existed. Suddenly you end up six, seven years later.”

In essence, this was a creative venture taken to its extreme in the best possible way. Take solace in that, friends.

Alright, enough with the pity party. Let's get down to the hardcore facts. When is Silksong coming out again?

(Clears throat) Why, that would be Thursday, September 4, 2025!

Man, phew. And what systems will we be able to play it on?

Ha. You think Team Cherry wouldn't have their bases covered here?

You'll be able to play Hollow Knight: Silksong on:

  • PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4
  • Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2
  • Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
  • Steam, Windows, Linux, macOS

Basically, if you have any modern video game platform, you will be able to play Silksong. Rest assured.

I still can't believe Silksong is real and almost here. What did we do to deserve this?

I'm right there with you. I'm still processing the news myself. And don't discredit yourself. We've all been very good lately. Consider this incoming masterpiece our reward. Gird your loins.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Hollow Knight Silksong: Everything we know ahead of September release

Reporting by Robert Zeglinski, For The Win / For The Win

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect