Team Cherry first introduced Hollow Knight: Silksong back in February 2019, as a mainline sequel to the first entry (2017) in the series. Since then, the independent Australian development studio and publisher has produced a minimal amount of preview material. The last significant chunk was delivered during an Xbox 2022 presentation. Fast-forward to June (2025); many Metroidvania genre enthusiasts were hoping for some newer signs of life—potentially amid a flurry of special preview events. Pre-event SteamDB updates seemed to point to an imminent announcement of sorts. Days later, Sony's State of Play and Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest did not harbor any fresh Hollow Knight series updates.

Thankfully, yesterday's Xbox Games Showcase provided a hint of things to come. Sarah Bond (President of Xbox) discussed the status of Team Cherry's magnum opus during Microsoft's public unveiling of ASUS ROG's Xbox Ally and Ally X gaming handhelds: "the highly anticipated Hollow Knight: Silksong will be available at launch, and on Game Pass, when the Ally releases later this year." Unsurprisingly, Team Cherry did not launch a parallel promotion/hype campaign. Instead, Matthew Griffin—the team's resident PR and marketing expert—headed over to the official Hollow Knight Discord community channel, and disclosed some pleasing news: "I confirmed BEFORE Holiday—we are not tied to a console release." When pressed about a specific launch window, Griffin envisioned a pre-Christmas arrival.

Hollow Knight: Silksong's long gestation period has frustrated many Team Cherry fans. The Adelaide, Australia-based independent development and publishing house has only released one title: Hollow Knight (2017). The much-anticipated sequel was officially delayed two years ago; a "planned" H1 2023 launch window was scuppered. Since then, Metroidvania genre fanatics have pored over the slightest of new details or external insights. Team Cherry has maintained a very low profile the ensuing years, but hopes were elevated in March. At the time, Microsoft's ID@Xbox initiative boasted about their empowering (aka supplementary funding) of development on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Descenders Next, FBC: Firebreak, and "of course Hollow Knight: Silksong." Early last month, Team Cherry's PR and marketing chief—Matthew Griffin—confirmed that the team was working on versions of Silksong for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 consoles. Aditionally, two new in-game screenshots emerged via Nintendo of Japan's official website.

Fresh signs of activity were welcomed and celebrated by the upcoming game's intended audience. More good news has turned up this week—eagle-eyed observers noticed that The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) will be previewing a playable build later this year. As disclosed within a new exhibit description: "Game Worlds transports you inside the levels of 30 unforgettable video games, from global blockbusters like World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment) to pioneer of the life simulation genre The Sims (Electronic Arts), Neopets (World of Neopia) and highly anticipated Australian title Hollow Knight: Silksong, plus more to be announced." The Melbourne-based museum could attract an unprecedented number of paying gamer tourists; playable titles will be showcased until February of next year.

Team Cherry, the indie development outfit responsible for producing smash hit 2D platformer Hollow Knight (2017), has this week announced that the sequel - Silksong - will be missing its proposed early-ish 2023 launch window. The Australian team's publishing and marketing manager Matthew Griffin confirmed via a tweet that Hollow Knight: Silksong is still a work-in-progress project: "Hey gang, just a quick update about Silksong. We had planned to release in the 1st half of 2023, but development is still continuing. We're excited by how the game is shaping up, and it's gotten quite big, so we want to take the time to make the game as good as we can."

Hollow Knight: Silksong was first revealed to the public back in 2019, with Team Cherry taking a quiet approach to the release of preview material since then. A playable demo was on show at E3 2019, but a wider internet-based public has only had access to a pair of video trailers, some screenshots and minimal written details on official sites and product pages. Silksong was initially conceived as a DLC/expansion for the base game, but the designers expanded their project's scope - thus creating a standalone and entirely new entry in the series. It seems that the development team's ambitions have grown over the years - Griffin has not confirmed a revised release date but requests that fans wait for further announcements: "Expect more details from us once we get closer to release."