Hollow Knight Silksong fans are in an uproar after a mysterious message and image from developer Team Cherry has apparently led nowhere. The community was excited by a potential hint at a Switch 2 release or an ARG for the highly-anticipated followup to Hollow Knight. However, it now seems that the image and message meant nothing, leaving fans frustrated and slighted.

The Silksong community reached a fever pitch yesterday when Team Cherry member Nintendo announced the Switch 2 and a Nintendo Direct scheduled for April 2, which seemed to imply that Hollow Knight Silksong would be coming out on the Switch 2 or might even be working on an ARG.

Since then, however, Matthew "Leth" Griffin has reached out to Hollow Knight YouTuber fireb0rn to debunk many of the rumors floating around. Writing on BlueSky, ‪fireb0rn stated that "Leth reached out to me to confirm there was no Silksong ARG and that the changes to William's and the tweet were a nothingburger." The entire ordeal has left players feeling trolled and seeking direct answers from the development team.

The Hollow Knight Silksong Community Demands Answers After Potential Trolling Stunt

The Appeal Has Resulted In A Few Short Answers From Marketing Manager Leth

In a viral Reddit post started by nickritikos, the Redditor writes an appeal to Team Cherry, stating in all caps: "WE DEMAND A STATEMENT FROM TEAM CHERRY." In the lengthy post, the Redditor asks the developers to issue an official statement clarifying the game's status and whether the chocolate cake image meant anything or if "the cake is a lie."

The post expresses the Redditor's disappointment in Team Cherry for pulling this stunt, in which they say that the "tweet hours before Nintendo Switch 2 reveal, was [on] purpose, just to troll us." The developers then poured salt on the wound, according to fans, by using a third party, YouTuber fireb0rn, to debunk the rumors instead of speaking directly to the fans. The writer of the Reddit appeal adds, "I have never seen such disrespect to a community."

Since the Reddit post went live, there have been a few more direct lines of communication between the fans and PR and marketing manager "Leth" on Discord and Twitter. The post highlights a few new bits of information about Silksong confirmed by Leth, namely that the game is progressing nicely and that the cryptic X message was not, in fact, announcing an ARG. Leth also confirmed that "Yes the game is real, progressing and will release." Other than a few brief answers, though, Leth writes that all the questions listed are fair but that he's not at liberty to answer them just yet.

Hollow Knight Silksong Has Kept The Rumors Running For Years

The Community Just Wants Some Direct Updates

Silksong has been in development since 2019, and over the ensuing six years, the team has been very quiet about its progress. The developer's overall silence has led to many theories regarding the game's progress, with some fearing that the title was stuck in development hell. However, Team Cherry updates just frequently enough to keep the rumor mill alive, often leading to wild speculation and farfetched theories.

I love Hollow Knight and I would also love to play a followup to the beloved Metroidvania. However, I'd rather the developers take their time in creating a worthy successor. I also don't think fans are entitled to updates and demanding them feels like overstepping the developer/gamer line.

It almost sounds like the developers aren't allowed to speak too much about some news they're sitting on, which would be in line with the strict rules that Nintendo might put on its partner developers. Fans eagerly anticipating Hollow Knight Silksong might be in for some good news soon after all, but it might be better for everyone if that news is announced on Team Cherry's and not the fans'.

Source: nickritikos/Reddit, everydruidwaswr/X, fireb0rn.bsky.social‬/BlueSky