Hollow Knight: Silksong has now delayed at least 8 indie games in the 5 days since its September release date was announced: "I feel like a little krill trying to not get eaten by a blue whale"

At this point, Hollow: Knight Silksong might as well be the Sun – smaller indie games are helplessly caught in its orbit, though an increasing number of them are plotting an escape. As of writing, at least eight games have delayed their planned launch dates after Silksong developer Team Cherry revealed only five days ago that the Metroidvania of the millennia would come out on September 4.

"I feel like a little krill trying to not get eaten by a blue whale," writes developer Frogteam in a Bluesky post announcing its decision to indefinitely push back the demo release for Stomp and the Sword of Miracles, a 2D Metroidvania dedicated to a tiny lizard and its magic sword. "Tiny devs like me rely on word of mouth and streamers to bring in visibility, and everyone's gonna be busy with Silksong for quite a while!"

indie devs with upcoming releases: "We simply have no choice but to delay the game because of Silksong" indie devs with upcoming releases, in private: "oh thank god we got an excuse to get a few extra weeks before release"

— @tylerglaiel.com (@tylerglaiel.com.bsky.social) 2025-08-26T19:56:09.919Z

In its own announcement, publisher Ysbryd Games agrees – so it bumped Necrosoft's tactical RPG Demonschool from a September 3 release to November 19, because it was also at risk of getting gobbled up.

"The Ysbryd team strongly believes we would not be doing our game any favors by wading into waters we can clearly see are blood red," said Ysbryd on Bluesky. "If the September period is going to be Silksong's moment, then we need to be elsewhere.

The other games purportedly delayed by Silksong – Baby Steps, CloverPit, Megabonk, Aeterna Lucis, Little Witch in the Woods' 1.0 version, Faeland 1.0, and possibly others – all discuss Silksong with a similar mix of fear and reverence.

In the end, ducking out of Silksong's way like it's an oncoming truck could be to their benefit; I've seen people suggest that being a bonafide "game delayed by Silksong" is more exciting than not, potentially giving small developers a publicity boost and more time to polish their games. Still, Silksong is a monstrous competitor.

The impending Silksong release date drives droves of fans back to the OG Hollow Knight, which has doubled its Steam player peak 8 years after launch.