Cognition Dissemination: Please Re-Reveal Silksong Already

A predictable pattern played out after Nintendo announced their newest Indie Showcase stream: Out came the ardent Hollow Knight fans hoping for a Silksong reveal and potential release date. It’s a tale as old as… well, not time; it hasn’t been that long since Hollow Knight originally released. But we’ve seen this pattern long enough that memes have been made about fans of the game being clowns for expecting it. It’s now been a couple of days since the stream started and finished, and chances are you know the story by now: Silksong was not shown, nor was it mentioned.

I’d love to say that disappointment followed with the stream’s conclusion, but this was already happening as the stream was still going. These fans have been disappointed so many times with Silksong no-showing on streams put on by hardware manufacturers that they’ve started dooming about its manifestation chances in advance and during them.

In fairness, it’s not like they didn’t have more reason to expect it this time. Xbox brand product manager Tao Sila posted on Twitter (a site with no other name) that the store page was live on Xbox platforms right on April Fools’ Day, corroborated by Team Cherry marketer and publisher Matthew Griffin. It’s also been assigned ratings in several territories in the last month or so, including in Korea, Australia, and North America. There were legitimate reasons to think it could show up at some kind of indie showcase, and this happened to be the newest one. You know by now that it wasn’t to be.

I do understand the disappointment at this point, especially with recent evidence of a re-reveal as outlined in the above paragraph. But the sheer level of disappointment, and the way in which fans are expressing it, is now beyond parody. I’m now on my knees (figuratively — largely) begging for Team Cherry to reveal this game now, just so these people can shut up about it.

There was a point when too-ardent fans expressed their upset and outrage at every other goddamned game revealed during the Indie Showcase. This was a stream in which the Wario Land-like Antonblast was confirmed for Switch, which received a demo (and a bizarrely far-off release date of November 12th). This was a stream in which a Switch port of Europa was announced, also given a demo. This was a stream in which SteamWorld Heist II was announced. It wasn’t the best such indie stream Nintendo has put on, but plenty of great-looking titles were shown, none of which deserved the “this isn’t Silksong” treatment.

Watching an indie stream and complaining when your favorite upcoming indie game isn’t shown is hilariously missing the point of indie games, but it’s happening. These are the same kinds of people responsible for making the “Triple I” initiative an unironic talking point. (I understand the need for indie games to stand out among a crowded pack, but that’s not a good name.) There was a time when it was easy to dodge the craziest Hollow Knight fans begging to see Silksong, but that’s too hard now.

I am now begging for Team Cherry to reveal this game, just for these people to stop. We are watching the phenomenon of fans preemptively ruining an upcoming game for the saner individuals among the community in real time.

I’m asking for this and saying it all as someone who very much enjoyed Hollow Knight. The game’s potential runtime intimidated me at first, after figuring that a Metroidvania game couldn’t possibly be so long without feeling padded out. The only other game in the platforming subgenre I played with anywhere near the same runtime was Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which absolutely felt padded in places despite being enjoyable overall. Granted, I only played through Hollow Knight for the first time between January and February this year, a mere two months ago. But I’m confident that I’ll never reach such a deranged and obsessed stage. I’ve had, and still have, a constant number of games to play, and undoubtedly will for the foreseeable future. I also have a life outside the hobby.

The wish list going live on Xbox and its previous showcase at the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase in 2022 are perhaps clues about where Silksong will manifest next. It could show up on another Xbox Developer Director or ID Showcase, but anticipation for the game is likely big enough at this point that it could show up at the next Xbox and Bethesda conference in June. Heck, it could even release after the showcase. Just don’t blame me if that scenario doesn’t play out. I only want the more obsessed fans to relax already. They clearly don’t know how annoying they are.

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