Silksong thirst is now so outrageously high that Geoff Keighley has to announce that it won't be at his show so people don't lose their minds

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It won't be there. It was never going to be there. Please leave Geoff's inbox alone.

Hollow Knight: Silksong — character art of Hornet, Silksong's protagonist, brandishing her weapon
(Image credit: Team Cherry)

The games industry is built on absurd, slavering, and often unfulfilled hype. That's how it's always been and, god willing, it's how it will always be. From E3 (RIP) to Gamescom to Summer Game Fest, we all love working ourselves into a tizz trying to guess just what announcement this year's slate of weirdly dressed execs and nervous devs will drop for us on the showfloor.

Ordinarily, that's something the events welcome. It only generates buzz and an audience if the subreddits and forum posts have convinced themselves that this year they're announcing Half-Life 3 for sure, bro. But apparently there is an upper limit, and Hollow Knight fans have found it. They're so (understandably) desperate for info about Silksong, the sequel to the original beloved metroidvania originally announced in 2019, that Geoff Keighley's Opening Night Live has come out ahead of the event to manage their expectations and avoid their wrath: Silksong will not be at the event, so please do not fill his inbox with betrayed wails of angst.

The Gamescom Opening Night Live occurs tomorrow, and you'd think ol' Geoff would welcome the kind of feverish theorising that might get folks to tune in, but the Silksong wanters are past being toyed with at this point. The community finds a new strata of despair with every Nintendo Direct and State of Play where it goes unmentioned, and has most recently been in our pages for reaching for the pitchforks when a figure who claimed to be a lead tester on the game told fans it wasn't in development hell. Some desperate fans thought he was playing with their emotions.

Which isn't really reasonable, of course. A game, no matter how good, is just a game, and if you reach the point where you're spitting venom at someone over not giving you the right kind of news about one, it's probably time to go for a walk. Still, you can see why Keighley might be eager to get out ahead of things and let people know ONL will be sadly, dishearteningly Skong-less.

And even if some of the reaction has been too much, I can't fault the fans for being a bit exhausted. In the five years since the game was properly announced, updates have been scant to the point of drought. No shade on Team Cherry for keeping things under wraps until it's good and ready to show things off, but it'd probably be better for everyone if updates about the game were a bit more frequent. We've not had a trailer since 2022, after all. I have to wonder if the devs don't regret announcing the game when they did.

Ah well, all we know for sure is that Silksong won't be at Big Geoff Keighley's Gamescom Bonanza. What could that mean? Clearly, only that it will definitely be at the Tokyo Game Show this September. Come on everybody. Keep the faith. Team Cherry can only do it if you believe.

Joshua Wolens
Joshua Wolens
News Writer

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.