Silksong’s Surprise Launch That Broke Steam
Hollow Knight: Silksong was always going to be a big deal for PC players, but its actual launch went beyond what most people expected. The moment it released, Steam struggled to cope. The store effectively fell apart for a few hours, blocking many players from even buying the game.
That chaos says a lot about how much hype had built up. Silksong spent years as one of the most anticipated PC games around, and when it finally dropped, it justified the wait. Players quickly discovered a huge, deep experience that people are still dissecting months later, from advanced speedrun tricks to obscure mechanics and secrets.
In hindsight, it makes sense that some developers quietly slid their own release dates away from Silksong’s launch window. Going head to head with one of the most anticipated PC releases of the decade can easily drown out a smaller or newer title, especially on platforms like Steam where visibility is everything.
Eight Games Blinked First
Once Team Cherry surprise dropped the Silksong release date, there was a noticeable ripple effect across the 2025 PC release calendar. A total of eight games moved their schedules in response, including notable titles like Demonschool and Baby Steps.
These were not tiny indie experiments. Demonschool is a stylish tactical RPG with strong reviews, and Baby Steps is a quirky physics based walking sim that has already built a reputation for being both hilarious and punishing. Even so, their teams clearly did not want to share launch week with Silksong.
Was that the wrong move? It depends on how you look at it.
- From a visibility standpoint, trying to compete with a game that broke Steam on day one is risky.
- On the other hand, Silksong is unusual enough that it probably is not directly stealing the same audience as every other game in the same week.
- For many studios, the delay may have been a welcome excuse to add polish, fix bugs and tighten performance.
Team Cherry co founder Ari Gibson admits he feels a bit conflicted about the fallout. When asked about the flurry of delays earlier in the year, he told Bloomberg that it was “to some extent unfortunate” that so many developers felt the need to move. But he also explained that even Team Cherry did not really know their own release date until very late in the process.
According to Gibson, the final date was only nailed down a week or two before the trailer went out. The team had been in a full sprint, “rushing, rushing, rushing toward the end” and working right up to the last possible moment. Once they felt the game was ready, they basically pulled the trigger immediately.
In other words, there was never a long marketing runway where other developers could calmly plan around the Silksong launch. The date appeared, and the schedule shuffle started almost instantly.
The Vibes Based Dev Cycle And What Comes Next
If you have followed Hollow Knight and Silksong for a while, this last minute approach will not surprise you. Team Cherry has talked before about having a more intuitive or vibes based development style. Instead of locking down a rigid scope early, they keep adding and refining until the project finally “feels” done.
That is how you end up working on one game for seven years. It is also how you end up with the kind of dense, systems rich design that speedrunners and lore hunters can keep pulling apart long after launch. Players are still discovering bugs and tech that reshape how the game can be completed, including wild skips that let you effectively fly through areas as an invincible powerhouse.
This style is risky from a scheduling standpoint. It makes precise release planning nearly impossible, which is part of why Silksong’s date felt like a surprise even to its own creators. But the trade off is a game that feels handcrafted and deeply tuned for the kind of mechanical depth PC players love.
There is also a bigger industry pattern here. Silksong is huge, but Ari Gibson is realistic about its scale. It is not on the same level as something like Grand Theft Auto in terms of mainstream impact. Yet it still managed to cause a small wave of delays and calendar reshuffles, especially in the PC space where its audience is the strongest.
The situation is a preview of what is likely to happen with Grand Theft Auto 6. That game, now planned for November, will probably trigger an even more dramatic game of musical chairs. Publishers and indie devs alike will be eyeballing that window and deciding whether it is safer to move out of the way or try to counter program with something totally different.
For PC gamers, all of this means a few things:
- Release schedules may look chaotic, with sudden shifts when megahits announce or move their dates.
- Delays are not always bad news; they can mean better performance, fewer bugs and more polished launches for smaller titles.
- Staggered releases can be a blessing, making it easier to actually play the big backlog of quality PC games rather than having them all pile up in a single week.
Silksong’s launch shows how one highly anticipated PC title can reshape an entire season. It crashed Steam, pushed other games around, and still delivered enough depth to keep players exploring it months later. As more heavy hitters line up for 2025 and beyond, do not be surprised if you see that same pattern repeat: a surprise date drop, a wave of scheduling changes, and PC players left with a slightly clearer path to enjoy each big release.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/silksong-devs-felt-they-didnt-have-a-lot-of-control-over-its-release-date-and-sympathize-with-all-the-games-that-were-delayed-to-avoid-it-to-some-extent-that-probably-is-unfortunate/
