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

Highlights

The long wait for Hollow Knight: Silksong is different from others, as a fear of cancellation sets it apart from its peers like Elden Ring.
Silksong’s smaller team and indie status create unique challenges, and the lack of info has left fans in limbo and sparked fears of cancelation.
Compared to Elden Ring, which players had to wait a long time for but knew would eventually release, Silksong’s anticipation is scarier, fueled by sparse updates and doubts about its future.

Hollow Knight: Silksong fans 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 distinguishes Hollow Knight: Silksong from its peers, and that’s the fear that the game is in development hell and could be canceled.

Hollow Knight: Silksong and Elden Ring are the perfect comparison regarding this principle. The latter game was first revealed in the same year that Silksong was, 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 Playtester Addresses ‘Development Hell’ Concerns

A Hollow Knight: Silksong playtester addresses concerns about the game being trapped in development hell.

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 that Elden Ring has been out for two years, while Silksong doesn’t feel much closer to release than when it was first announced. Furthermore, Elden Ring recently released Shadow 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.

Silksong is 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 Knight took years to finish as well. Likewise, the size and scope of Hollow Knight: Silksong are 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 and Elden Ring‘s status as AAA is a clear distinction worth pointing out. The expectations and anticipation for Hollow Knight: Silksong have soared beyond most other indie games, and this most definitely puts developers in an awkward position. However, the factor that lends Silksong the 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 that Elden Ring would eventually come out. The Dark Souls franchise and every game associated with it have been widely acclaimed for years. Elden Ring had 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 world Dark Souls game”.

Though such high expectations likely came with a similar pressure, it could be managed well thanks to the significantly larger developer team behind Elden 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 to Silksong.

Until the next major update, Hollow Knight: Silksong is essentially in limbo. With little to go off of in that regard, Silksong continues 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: Silksong has 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.