The cake was a lie, but Silksong 'is real, progressing and will release' say devs, after flurry of conspiracy theories revealed to be a 'nothingburger'

Hollow Knight: Silksong — Hornet, the heroine of the Hollow Knight sequel, leaping into action.

(Image credit: Team Cherry)

Alright, Silksong gang, pack up the cork boards and sorrowfully spool away your red string—turns out we were being had. Or maybe just drunk on pattern recognition. Most definitely the latter.

In case you've been out of the loop (honestly, you're better off), the Silksong community had a conniption last week after a developer William Pellen's alt account, typically used for shitposting, changed its handle and profile picture to some chocolate, then cryptically tweeted out the words "something big is coming. keep your eyes closed tomorrow".

Like a horde of hungry zombies that'd just been thrown an arm, the much-starved fanbase crowded around and began to draft conspiracy theories. Some of which I was even buying into, like how the account's new handle, "little bomey", was a reference to Napoleon Bonaparte—it's a whole thing. All signs seemed to point to April 2, 2024—turns out, those signs were wrong.

Hollow Knight speed and challenge runner fireb0rn posted to X that Matthew Griffin—otherwise known as Leth, who handles marketing and publishing for Team Cherry, had "reached out to me to confirm there was no Silksong ARG, and that the changes to William's account and the tweet were a nothingburger. Apologies to have misled everyone. The cake was a lie."

So, how's the fanbase doing? Uh—not super great, as one post discussing the letdown shows. "Radio silence for years when asked to give any kind of update, response within two days for this though," writes one despondent player on the r/Silksong subreddit. "I am honestly sick of these kinds of bait," writes another, "they are large (coming from William after all) so of course all spring into action and hope, just to be crushed."

The main Hollow Knight subreddit seems similarly disappointed, but not surprised. "Leth should take a break from all this typing before he gets carpal tunnel," a detractor jokes, referencing the marketer's long silences. That is a little harsh—but in fairness, Team Cherry has been habitually and perpetually quiet about the project other than some promises that it's totally happening, with news droughts stretching into the hundreds of days.

That might be because whenever Team Cherry says anything at this point, its fan community descends upon those words like a swarm of starved locusts—which, I get, even if they can be a touch melodramatic. At the very least, it's not solid optics to put a trailer in a 2022 showcase of games ready to come out in the same year, before spending three more years developing it with nothing but an occasional squeak. Let's hope there's some proper news soon, for the sanity of everyone—and not least that poor "Daily Silksong News" guy, whose long vigil may very well continue.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.