For fans of Hollow Knight, waiting for Silksong has felt a bit like waiting for a long-lost friend to return from a mysterious journey. You hear whispers, see glimpses, maybe a blurry photo or two, but the day of reunion never seems to arrive. Over the years, updates have been scarce, delays have been quietly folded into silence, and fan speculation has turned from hopeful to ironic. Yet now, amid the usual sea of vague trailers and flashy announcements, a small but clear signal has broken through: Silksong is coming—and it’s coming before Christmas.
Let’s rewind just a bit.
This past weekend’s Xbox Games Showcase was packed with the usual glitz and hype, with developers revealing new titles and shiny hardware. And in a brief, almost blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, Hollow Knight: Silksong appeared. Not in the form of a sweeping gameplay trailer or dramatic music swell. Instead, it showed up during the announcement of Xbox’s two new handheld devices, with a single note: Silksong will be available when the ROG Ally launches “later this year.”
Cue confusion. Is Silksong tied to the Ally release? Does that mean it’s delayed until the holidays? Or is it coming sooner?
Enter Matthew “Leth” Griffin, the marketing and publishing lead at Team Cherry. While fans scrambled to decode the showcase messaging, Griffin popped up on Discord to set things straight. Responding to a fan’s question, he wrote, simply: “I confirmed BEFORE Holiday – we are not tied to a console release.” When pressed further, he clarified: yes, by “holiday,” he means Christmas.
Now, for anyone not keeping score at home, that’s the clearest time frame we’ve gotten for Silksong in years. Not “soon.” Not “when it’s ready.” But “before Christmas.”
It’s a small phrase, but one that carries the weight of nearly half a decade’s worth of anticipation. To put that in perspective: when Silksong was first announced back in 2019, Elden Ring was still a total mystery, the world had never heard of COVID-19, and “TikTok dances” hadn’t yet entered the average person’s vocabulary. Since then, fans have been clinging to hope through dev blogs, interview breadcrumbs, and the ever-teasing Steam page updates.
And those fans—bless them—have developed a culture of their own. Some post daily updates in a thread called “Is Silksong Out Yet?” (Spoiler: no.) Others write fanfics imagining Hornet’s adventures in regions we’ve never seen. One guy even promised to eat a sock if the game came out in 2023. He’s still holding onto that sock.
So when anything concrete is said—like Griffin’s holiday window confirmation—it feels like a seismic event in the community. Twitter lit up. Reddit threads exploded. The “SKONG” chants (the community’s affectionate, chaotic nickname for the game) flooded chats during the showcase livestream. For a moment, the silence was broken, and people allowed themselves to hope again.
It’s not just the fans who are restless. The Metroidvania genre has evolved since the original Hollow Knight reshaped it in 2017. Games like Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Axiom Verge 2, and Blasphemous have pushed boundaries, while Silksong has quietly built pressure by virtue of its own mystery. It’s no longer just a sequel—it’s become a symbol of indie ambition, patience, and the slow, often frustrating process of creation.
And maybe that’s part of the magic. In a world addicted to instant gratification, Silksong has dared to ask us to wait. And wait. And wait. Much like waiting for a sourdough to rise or a really good stew to finish simmering, the team at Team Cherry has taken their time—not to frustrate, but to craft something worth the effort.
Of course, some skepticism remains. “We’ve heard this before,” some fans will say. After all, back in 2022, Xbox once suggested the game would be out “within 12 months.” That didn’t happen. The phrase “before the holidays” isn’t a hard release date, either. There’s still wiggle room for delay, for changes, for life to get in the way. But the difference this time is tone. Griffin’s words were firm. The messages didn’t sound like marketing spin. They sounded like a team that’s finally seeing the finish line—and is just trying to get there in one piece.
Meanwhile, others are just happy to see signs of life. A recent Steam database update for Silksong had players convinced a demo or surprise drop might be imminent. That wasn’t the case, but it stoked the fires again. The same way people look for signs of spring—buds on the trees, longer evenings—Silksong fans are trained to notice every flutter from Team Cherry’s usually-silent studio.
So, what’s next?
At the moment, we still don’t have an official trailer. No confirmed release date. No major marketing push. But what we do have is a window—and that’s more than we’ve had in years. With events like Summer Game Fest and Gamescom on the horizon, it’s possible we’ll finally get that big reveal moment.
Until then, we wait. But this time, the waiting feels different. Less like staring into a void and more like sitting on your porch, scanning the horizon, knowing your friend is finally on their way home.
And maybe—just maybe—this Christmas, we’ll be exploring Pharloom instead of the family dinner table.
If you’re reading this and feeling a little teary-eyed or strangely excited over a 2D bug princess in a hand-drawn underground world… you’re not alone. Silksong means something to people. It’s not just a game anymore—it’s a quiet promise that some things are worth the wait.
So hang in there. Hornet’s almost home.
