Context: Hollow Knight: Silksong will be released on September 4th after like 6 years of radio silence.
Wtf, two weeks? Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy the game is completed, even more that it comes out so soon, but genuinely who came up with the Galaxy Brain communication strategy to 1. Announce this game at the vertical slice stage at most, 2. Give dead air as progress updates for longer than most franchises have a shelf life, 3. Only sound off properly again barely a fortnight before you’re due on storefronts, leaving any fans still monitoring for news scrambling to find spare change/time for Day 1 purchase, let alone the legions that fell asleep away from the radio.
Okay, I'll admit that 6 years is an unusually long radio silence duration, but Silksong's development cycle hasn't been that long for a game of its scope; it mainly feels like it's taken forever perhaps because of said radio silence (and unrealistic expectations set by its predessor; more on that below). For some points of comparison: Pizza Tower spent about 5 years in development, Unbeatable is also releasing this year after 8 years, and Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4 just came out this year (about 7 years after Chapter 1 [released 2018]). Heck, Silksong's dev cycle is on the short end for an indie metroidvania: Phoenotopia: Awakening spent 7 years in development (same as Silksong), Owlboy 9 years, and The Iconoclasts 11 years if you count the cancelled Ivory Springs prototype (8 if you don't). If anything the original Hollow Knight's development cycle was freakishly short (and suffered for it, as anyone who played the 1.0 release can tell you!).
Okay, I'll admit that 6 years is an unusually long radio silence duration, but Silksong's development cycle hasn't been that long for a game of its scope
I said nothing about the dev time. I have no issue with how long it’s taken for the game to be realized. My complaint and incredulity is focused solely on the refusal to speak with the fanbase in the process of reaching this date. When I joke that the dev were quiet for longer than the shelf life of a franchise, I mean just that; longer than half a decade of no communication of any kind is more than enough time for people to get discouraged and stop holding their breath. This could have easily happened to the Hollow Knight fandom if they hadn’t turn their waiting in the dark into a big meme poking fun at themselves.
I can’t think of a good reason to have had zero updates at all since the initial announcement period back in Feb 2019, over 6.5 years ago. It could not have been that much of a distraction or drain of resources or breach of security to at least have had a once-yearly half-hour dev stream of “hey y’all, the dev team haven’t all been ax-murdered yet, here’s a short little showcase of an early level and/or side mechanic in Hornet’s ability kit”. And if the future of the project was unstable/uncertain enough that it really would have been a risk to showcase any of it, then how did it get announced so early in the first place instead of being kept under wraps for a full-on shadow release, or at least reaching a stage where it attaining fruition was assured?
You’re not the first person I’ve seen respond to complaints about the fandom being ghosted all this time by pivoting/conflating them into some critique about the time to make instead, and quite frankly I already find it insulting.
I can’t think of a good reason to have had zero updates at all since the initial announcement period back in Feb 2019, over 6.5 years ago.
I can absolutely think of many reasons, the most being the fanbase turning into a rabid big meme. Interacting with that is pretty detrimental to anyone's psyche. Instead they kept their head down, kept chugging away happily, and now they have a game that will speak for itself instead of needing them to speak for it via dev updates.
Only sound off properly again barely a fortnight before you’re due on storefronts, leaving any fans still monitoring for news scrambling to find spare change/time for Day 1 purchase, let alone the legions that fell asleep away from the radio.
The game's not going anywhere, no one is forced to pick it up day one to play it or risk missing it forever, they'll have the rest of their lives to pick it up. It's no different from the original HK that quadrupled its sales between the silksong announcement and now; that's a lot of people who didn't play it day one.
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