At the start of this month, Team Cherry reassured fans that Hollow Knight: Silksong is very much still a game in development. Today we got the second real official update for the year.
To quote Team Cherry’s Head of Marketing Matthew Griffin:
“Just to clarify… Hollow Knight: Silksong is coming to both Nintendo Switch AND the Nintendo Switch 2.”
On one end, it’s great to get continued reassurance that Hollow Knight: Silksong is still in the works. Now that we know that the Switch 2 is getting its own version, we also know that Team Cherry hasn’t just been resting on their laurels. But this raises new questions.
It’s possible that indie devs will make different versions of games for the Switch and the Switch 2 eShops, even if there are no real differences between them. There may be technical or contractual reasons that makes it necessary for even independent game developers, or developers of small scale games, to rerelease games on the two eShops. And maybe the reason is they just want to make more money with more versions.
But it is possible that Team Cherry may be adding something new on the Switch 2 version that isn’t on the Switch version. This may not necessarily be an expansion or extra content. Rather, it could be that they optimize the game for better performance on more powerful hardware. We could see this manifest in terms of more enemies on the Switch 2 version, or better visual effects, or just a buttery smooth framerate.
And this could also be something that Team Cherry is adding to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions, that won’t be on the PlayStation or or Xbox One versions. We won’t hazard a guess if it could be on the Xbox Series S version or not, but it’s really not impossible, for even a small scale game without the budget or resources of a AAA, to make use of more powerful hardware on their game.
We certainly hadn’t forgotten that Team Cherry first announced Hollow Knight: Silksong, converting it from an expansion to a full standalone sequel to Hollow Knight, all the way back in 2019. Just to put that in context, 2019’s The Game Awards came with announcements for Naraka Bladepoint, Sons of the Forest, Bravely Default 2, Godfall, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.
Not only have all the games I mentioned above been released since, Godfall’s developer Counterplay Games has sadly already closed before Hollow Knight: Silksong came out. Team Cherry is certainly fortunate that they could have kept going with this title through the pandemic, but for their own sake, as well as the fans, we hope that the studio is placing their finishing touches so that they can finally get this game out.
