Hollow Knight: Silksong’s Long Wait is Very Different From Elden Ring’s

Summary

Hollow Knight: Silksongfans have had to endure an infamously long wait. The hotly anticipated sequel was first revealed in 2019, and any news from Team Cherry has been very sparse ever since. Updates almost never come during major showcases, leaving fans largely in the dark to this very day. Though other games may have had similar waits before their release, one concerning factor heavily distinguishesHollow Knight: Silksongfrom its peers, and that’s the fear that the game is in development hell and could be canceled.

Hollow Knight: SilksongandElden Ringare the perfect comparison regarding this principle. The latter game was first revealed in the same year thatSilksongwas, before eventually releasing in 2022. Developers were purposefully quiet during that period, and fans were certainly desperate for any updates they could get their hands on. However,Hollow Knight: Silksong’s wait has become much scarier due to one key distinction: doubt.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Tag Page Cover Art

Hollow Knight: Silksong’s Anticipation is Much Scarier than Elden Ring’s

Hollow Knight Silksong is a Big Project for a Small Team

Of course, one could simply point to the fact thatElden Ringhas been out for two years, whileSilksongdoesn’t feel much closer to release than when it was first announced. Furthermore,Elden Ringrecently releasedShadow of the Erdtree, an expansion that could rival the ambition of many full games. However, this is by no means fair to the scope of either game.

Silksongis being developed by Team Cherry, a team with fewer than a handful of developers actively working on the game. This creates plenty of reasons to meet this uncomfortable anticipation with a certain degree of patience. Although it may not have had the same pressure against it as a sequel does,Hollow Knighttook years to finish as well. Likewise, thesize and scope ofHollow Knight:Silksongare supposedly double that of its predecessor, despite the team behind both games not growing much in the meantime.

Silksong’s status as an indie project andElden Ring’s status as AAA is a clear distinction worth pointing out. Theexpectations and anticipation forHollow Knight: Silksonghave soared beyond most other indie games, and this most definitely puts developers in an awkward position. However, the factor that lendsSilksongthe benefit of the doubt is also one of the biggest reasons fans are starting to bite their nails.

Elden Ring’s Massive Scale Was Matched by Massive Expectations

Simply put, there was never any doubt thatElden Ringwould eventually come out.TheDark Soulsfranchise and every game associatedwith it have been widely acclaimed for years.Elden Ringhad astronomically high expectations for it, and equally high ambition behind its development. From the very moment it was revealed, many fans had already conjured up their idea of an “open worldDark Soulsgame”.

Though such high expectations likely came with a similar pressure, it could be managed well thanks to the significantly largerdeveloper team behindElden Ring. Furthermore, fans could have such high faith in the quality of the game they were anticipating because its reveal and release were inevitable. Fans were excited and desperate for details, but they were rarely ever worried about the state of the game itself and never doubted that it would one day release.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Faces a Unique Challenge

Elden Ring, though it lorded information over fans' heads for a long time, had a sizable team and an extremely rich legacy behind it.Silksong’s comparably smaller team and status as the sequel to a single game both place it on rockier ground. While both games shared grueling waits, this aspect of doubt is unique toSilksong.

Until the next major update,Hollow Knight: Silksongis essentially in limbo. With little to go off of in that regard,Silksongcontinues to be plagued by the fears of its own audience. It’s certainly frightening to track the years-long wait for any news to come out while dodging rumors of cancelation all the while.

Any game faces an uphill battle when pitted against the expectations of passionate fans. Due to a number of factors,Hollow Knight: Silksonghas constantly given fans scares thanks to the possibility of a cancelation. Though there’s still time to prove these rumors wrong, the lack of info certainly hasn’t made the wait any easier.