Have you heard of a game called Hollow Knight Silksong? Silly question – the chances are you heard little else during Gamescom week. This near fabled sequel finally got a release date after several long years of development, and large parts of our gaming world erupted in response. The Gamescom queues to play Silksong were enormous. History had happened. The 4th September – mark it in your diary.
But it wasn’t good news for everyone. Announcing the date so late in the game’s development – a mere two weeks from release – meant a slew of games which already had early September release dates were suddenly in a difficult position. What should they do – hold ground and go against Silksong? Or move?
The choice was easier for some. Silksong, for all its legendary status, is an indie game made by a small team, so it will appeal particularly to players of indie games, especially tricky side-scrolling Metroidvanias. Blockbuster-styled games like moody action adventure Hell is Us should prove more resistant to Silksong-related audience leech, ditto shooters and other games without obvious crossover appeal. It’s to indie games we should look to see the Silksong effect – and it didn’t take long to be felt.
Swiftly, role-playing game Demonschool and literal walking simulator Baby Steps lunged out of the way, delaying their releases by a couple of weeks. Then Dorfromantik developer Toukana pushed the release of its new game Star Birds back a bit. With each new day came another alteration, so instead of listing each Silksong-related delay game by game, I thought I’d round them up. I thought I’d take a closer look at the 2025 release schedule and investigate what has and hasn’t moved, and there was a lot more movement than I expected.
The movers:
- Lord Ambermaze, from 2nd September to 17th September – “guess why lol”
- Demonschool, from 3rd September to 19th November
- Comfy Girl, from 3rd September to 8th October
- CloverPit, from 3rd September to 26th September – “if we stick to our original date we would risk the launch of CloverPit a fair bit”
- Kejora, from 4th September to January 2026
- Star Birds, from 4th September to 10th September
- Little Witch in the Woods, from 4th September to 15th September – “we fear that launching LWIW on the same day would not only dishearten our dedicated team but disappoint our devoted audience”
- Moros Protocol, from 4th September to 18th September
- Baby Steps, from September 8th to September 23rd
- Faeland, from 9th September to release date TBC – “we want to make sure it arrives at time where it can receive the attention and care that it deserves”
- Aeterna Lucis, from 18th September to 2026 – “The good thing is that I’ll get to enjoy #Silksong just like any other fan”
- Megabonk, to 18th September – “UH OH MEGABONK DELAY”
The non-movers:
- Metal Eden, 2nd September
- Hirogami, 3rd September – “Hirogami’s launch date is staying exactly where it is”
- Jotunnslayer 1.0 release, 3rd September
- Adventure of Samsara, 4th September
- Hell is Us, 4th September
- Jetrunner, 4th September
- Fling to the Finish on consoles, still 4th September – “yes, we know what else is coming out that day”
- Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots, 4th September
- Dark Deity 2 on Switch 2, 4th September – Silksong’s release announcement “was not as fun for me as I had hoped”
- Cronos: The New Dawn, 5th September
- Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion, 5th September
- Shuten Order, 5th September
I’ll try to keep this list updated if and when any other games’ dates move around, by the way. But what about you – did the Silksong news affect you? Are you eager to play it? Or are you nonplussed?