Hollow Knight: Silksong is now live, and with no leaks or review codes everyone is playing it for the first time after waiting more than 6 years

Hollow Knight: Silksong is now live. It's out on all platforms – PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X (and day one Game Pass), Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, and PC – for $19.99. It's here. It's real. You can go play it right now.

The wait for Silksong has been long and, perhaps not bumpy, but so eerily smooth that it often felt unnerving anyway. Scant updates from developer Team Cherry gave way to desperate player investigations into crumbs like Steam updates or storefront placeholders. Consequently, every new Nintendo Direct, PlayStation show, or similar partner showcase was subjected to the bloodshot gaze of the Hallownest populace. For six years.

I'll spoil this story for you now: it all came to nothing. The reason? The devs were having too much fun to stop, and they didn't want to bother fans with repetitive 'we're working on it' check-ins. Honestly, you've got to respect it.

But at last, it's all come to something: Hollow Knight: Silksong is out now. And as the curtain finally raises, I'm struck by the vacuum that the game is launching in.

I've been doing game journalism for over 12 years now, but reviews have never been my priority, so I've only done a handful a year at most. But each time I play a game for review, I'm once again struck by the unfamiliar feeling that comes with playing a game that has zero information available online.

No guides, no tips, no discussions. Absolutely nothing. I consult game guides extremely rarely, but even I find the information gap odd in today's interconnected, over-stimulated age. That's the void that Silksong, and the zillion people hungry to play it, are about to drop into.

That will change quickly, of course. Journalists and speedrunners and everyday players will tear through Silksong like termites through wood. Soon we'll be drowning in guides about the best gear, where to find upgrades, and how to beat bosses. Social media posts and YouTube videos will debate optimal routes and interrogate the controls. Fan art will bury us. Our Hollow Knight Silksong release live coverage will collect and contextualize it all.

Sharing the discovery and mastery of a game with a likeminded community can also be delightful, of course – remember the Elden Ring launch, when everyone unpacked the secrets and challenges together?

But for a brief moment, everyone will be playing Silksong sight-unseen, and for a Metroidvania game about adventure and exploration, that's a wonderful thing. It's also exceedingly uncommon in today's games industry, as it really only happens when devs pull a Team Cherry and really, really keep their cards close to their chest.

I finished my 112% replay of the original Hollow Knight last night, and I'll be diving into Silksong straight after work. I'll also be avoiding the internet as much as I can throughout the day – don't tell my boss, as the internet is kind of my job – and probably for the next couple of days to naively try and preserve that information void. Play and discourse however you like, but consider doing the same, because this doesn't happen very often.

Team Cherry had to go back to the drawing board for Hollow Knight: Silksong for one simple reason: "Hornet being taller changes everything."