Entertainment

Team Cherry was “callous” to drop the “GTA 6 of indie” Hollow Knight: Silksong on gaming like a bug-shaped bomb, says Hell is Us director: “When you know you’re that big, I think a shadow drop is like, ‘Wow'”

By Ashley Bardhan

Copyright gamesradar

Team Cherry was callous to drop the GTA 6 of indie Hollow Knight: Silksong on gaming like a bug-shaped bomb, says Hell is Us director: When you know you're that big, I think a shadow drop is like, 'Wow'

Skip to main content

GamesRadar+
The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love

View Profile

Search GamesRadar+

Game Insights

Games Features

Games Reviews

Games Guides

The Big Preview

On The Radar

Future Games Show

Action Games

Action RPGs

Adventure Games

Third Person Shooters

Xbox Series X

Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch 2

Tabletop Gaming

Grand Theft Auto

Assassin’s Creed

Monster Hunter

The Elder Scrolls

Entertainment

Anime Shows

Sci-Fi Shows

Superhero Shows

Animated Shows

Marvel TV Shows

Star Wars TV Shows

DC TV Shows

Movie Reviews

Superhero Movies

Action Movies

Sci-Fi Movies

Anime Movies

Horror Movies

Marvel Movies

Apple TV Plus

Disney Plus

Amazon Prime Video

Marvel Comics

Toys & Merch

Toys & Collectibles

Dungeons and Dragons

Hardware News

Hardware Reviews

Hardware Features

Desktop PCs

Peripherals

Headsets & Headphones

TVs & Monitors

Gaming Mice

Gaming Keyboards

Gaming Chairs

Speakers & Audio

Accessories & Tech

Gaming Controllers

SSDs & Hard Drives

Accessories

Buying Guides

Newsletters

Retro Gamer

Game Insights

Games Features

Games Reviews

Games Guides

The Big Preview

On The Radar

Future Games Show

Action Games

Action RPGs

Adventure Games

Third Person Shooters

View Platforms

Xbox Series X

Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch 2

Tabletop Gaming

Franchises

Grand Theft Auto

Assassin’s Creed

Monster Hunter

The Elder Scrolls

Entertainment

View Entertainment

View TV Shows

Anime Shows

Sci-Fi Shows

Superhero Shows

Animated Shows

Marvel TV Shows

Star Wars TV Shows

DC TV Shows

View Movies

Movie Reviews

Superhero Movies

Action Movies

Sci-Fi Movies

Anime Movies

Horror Movies

Marvel Movies

View Streaming

Apple TV Plus

Disney Plus

Amazon Prime Video

View Comics

Marvel Comics

Toys & Merch

Toys & Collectibles

Dungeons and Dragons

View Hardware

Hardware News

Hardware Reviews

Hardware Features

Desktop PCs

Peripherals

View Peripherals

Headsets & Headphones

TVs & Monitors

Gaming Mice

Gaming Keyboards

Gaming Chairs

Speakers & Audio

Accessories & Tech

Gaming Controllers

SSDs & Hard Drives

Accessories

Buying Guides

Newsletters

Retro Gamer

Gaming Magazines

Why subscribe?

Subscribe from just £3
Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
Try a single issue or save on a subscription
Issues delivered straight to your door or device

From£9.99Subscribe now

Dying Light: The Beast
Borderlands 4 review
Battlefield 6
New Games for 2025

Don’t miss these

Adventure Games
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”

Action Games
‘Hide from Silksong’ delays hit indie roguelike and Metroidvania, devs say “we like a gamble, but this one is too risky” while another fears “competing with a phenomenon of that scale”

Action Games
“We were scared as hell when Silksong was announced to release on our day,” indie dev says, but “now it seems it was a blessing in disguise”

“Dropping the GTA of indie games with 2 weeks notice makes everyone freak out”: Devs wanted to “fight Silksong,” but it’s added another body to its kill count with delay of Persona-inspired tactics RPG

Platforming Games
“We refuse to fold”: As multiple games scramble out of the way of Hollow Knight: Silksong’s release, one platformer stands firm despite launching just 1 day before the Metroidvania

Platforming Games
Hollow Knight: Silksong devs never read YouTube or Reddit comments, but they’re aware a community of increasingly desperate Silkposters is out there: “Feels like we’re going to ruin their fun by releasing the game”

Upcoming Persona-inspired tactics RPG Demonschool was delayed due to Silksong, even though it doesn’t share the Hollow Knight sequel’s genre – and it’s all thanks to our “capitalist society”

Simulation Games
Silksong delayed a game so hard its devs made an entire trailer featuring a giant statue of Hollow Knight character Hornet

Action Games
Silksong is one of the most anticipated indie releases ever, but 10 years ago a friend of Team Cherry’s couldn’t even drum up hype for Hollow Knight’s trailer on Reddit: “Oh great, another side scroller indie”

Action Games
Silksong devs say there was no dev hell, only dev heaven: they’ve been quiet to avoid “bugging people,” once thought it would be out in “a year or two,” and “could have kept going” but also want to see this thing finished

Platforming Games
The Hollow Knight: Silksong arc needs to be studied and remembered: a small team of happy devs were just “having fun” making their game, not burning out, while the internet imploded

Adventure Games
One of the reasons Hollow Knight: Silksongs developers got to have so much fun making it despite taking 6 years is that it’s a 2D game

Action Games
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

Action Games
“Anything related to Silksong releasing would be the doom of the project,” lead on gorgeous Hollow Knight fan game once worried, but after 2 years of work it looks like it will launch this year

Platforming Games
Team Cherry hoped Silksong could be anyone’s “first Hollow Knight game,” and one reason it took 7 years is they were “comfortable” not knowing what’s gonna happen: “The really interesting things are the things you sort of discover along the way”

Action Games

Team Cherry was “callous” to drop the “GTA 6 of indie” Hollow Knight: Silksong on gaming like a bug-shaped bomb, says Hell is Us director: “When you know you’re that big, I think a shadow drop is like, ‘Wow'”

Ashley Bardhan

16 September 2025

That’s a scary bug

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Nacon)

You’ve seen the aftermath – indie developers scrambling to delay their games, praying they’d avoid the cannonball that was the random Hollow Knight: Silksong release date. It wasn’t very nice, was it?

“I mean, they’re allowed to do what they did. There’s no laws or rules against that,” Hell is Us creative director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête tells Skill Up (spotted by This Week in Video Games) about the way Team Cherry abruptly announced its latest Metroidvania’s launch date, after fans had been waiting years to play. Out of nowhere, he learned it was going to release on the same day as his Souls-ish action game. “I don’t want to […] say, ‘Oh, they caused this to us, or somebody else.’ Like, I don’t really care about that. I don’t want to get into that type of debate.”
Still, Jacques-Belletête maintains that “when you know you’re that big,” as Silksong developer Team Cherry must, “I think a shadow drop is a bit like, ‘Wow'” – especially if other studios consider your game the “GTA 6 of indie.”

You may like

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”

‘Hide from Silksong’ delays hit indie roguelike and Metroidvania, devs say “we like a gamble, but this one is too risky” while another fears “competing with a phenomenon of that scale”

“We were scared as hell when Silksong was announced to release on our day,” indie dev says, but “now it seems it was a blessing in disguise”

“People who are in the industry, that’s already how we were calling such a game,” Jacques-Belletête explains. “To shadow drop something like this is a little callous.”

In any case, Jacques-Belletête is glad Hell is Us developer Rogue Factor and publisher Nacon stood their ground and kept the game’s September 4 release date, despite the fact that Silksong was about to roll through September 4 like a tank.
“We were also like, ‘No, I think we can get through the storm,'” Jacques-Belletête recalls. “The thing nowadays, honestly, getting a window where you’re pretty much alone is almost impossible. I remember like, you know, 15 years ago… and kind of like, mid-end of summer was always like a dead period. But it’s just no such things anymore. It’s just constant madness.”
With “multi-map spanning secrets” and “phantasmagorical” horrors, Hell is Us wages a brutal civil war that already has me on edge.

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

See more PS5 News

Xbox Series X

PlayStation

Ashley Bardhan

Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She’s been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she’s written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she’s not covering gaming news, she’s usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.

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”

‘Hide from Silksong’ delays hit indie roguelike and Metroidvania, devs say “we like a gamble, but this one is too risky” while another fears “competing with a phenomenon of that scale”

“We were scared as hell when Silksong was announced to release on our day,” indie dev says, but “now it seems it was a blessing in disguise”

“Dropping the GTA of indie games with 2 weeks notice makes everyone freak out”: Devs wanted to “fight Silksong,” but it’s added another body to its kill count with delay of Persona-inspired tactics RPG

“We refuse to fold”: As multiple games scramble out of the way of Hollow Knight: Silksong’s release, one platformer stands firm despite launching just 1 day before the Metroidvania

Hollow Knight: Silksong devs never read YouTube or Reddit comments, but they’re aware a community of increasingly desperate Silkposters is out there: “Feels like we’re going to ruin their fun by releasing the game”

Latest in Action Games

Hollow Knight: Silksong’s second patch is live on Steam’s public-beta branch with bug fixes and more, and Team Cherry says we can “expect a few more additions and tweaks before full release”

I briefly mistook the new Lego Batman for modded Arkham footage, genuinely bamboozling me while making me more excited for the game than ever

Silksong Bellhart walkthrough and map location

“You have to design with the time you have”: Assassin’s Creed Shadows Claws of Awaji had to be a tighter, more focused expansion than anything its devs had made before

Team Cherry accidentally left a mouse cursor on-screen in a Silksong cutscene, earning its very own Game of Thrones coffee cup moment

“Nowadays there are too many Souls games,” says Phantom Blade Zero director, and you probably won’t know the difference in this “kung fu action game” until you play it

Latest in News

Apple CEO says a sequel to the Brad Pitt box office hit F1: The Movie is “definitely” being discussed: “We can’t wait to bring it to the surface”

Team Cherry was “callous” to drop the “GTA 6 of indie” Hollow Knight: Silksong on gaming like a bug-shaped bomb, says Hell is Us director: “When you know you’re that big, I think a shadow drop is like, ‘Wow'”

After 14 years and nearly $500,000 raised for charity, one dedicated Minecraft player is finally set to reach the fabled end-of-world Far Lands – a feat that may just be “one of the single greatest achievements” in gaming

Lock your doors: Final Fantasy 7 Remake is coming to Switch 2 as a monster game-key card that will eat around 90GB of storage

Jeremy Renner says his Knives Out 3 character “has no idea” who Jeremy Renner is, confusing us even more following Glass Onion’s hot sauce gag

Beating kung fu action RPG Phantom Blade Zero is “pretty achievable,” says combat director, but only if you’re willing to do so “in a mediocre, not-as-beautiful way”

GAME REVIEWS
MOVIE REVIEWS

Lego Voyagers review: “A carefully crafted, playful, and earnest adventure”

There’s now a real version of the Witcher Gwent card game, and it’s just as engrossing as the original

Borderlands 4 review: “Undeniably an excellent looter shooter, but one that requires a bit of tunnel vision to fully enjoy”

This enormous exploration board game won’t be for everyone, but it’s a masterclass in narrative and sandbox gameplay

Hollow Knight Silksong review: “Worth the wait and then some, this isn’t just more Hollow Knight but an evolved, spindly beast all its own – even if it’s fiddly at times”

The Conjuring: Last Rites review: “Not bold or memorable enough for the Warrens’ final chapter”

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle review: “Roars past Mugen Train as Demon Slayer’s best adventure yet”

The Long Walk review: “One of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made”

Frankenstein review: “A classy, if somewhat safe, adaptation”

Weapons review: “A twisted fairytale that bests Barbarian”

Gen V season 2 review: “As strong as the first season, if not stronger”

Wednesday season 2 part 2 review: “Ortega shines, but it’s a zombie who steals the entire show”

Peacemaker season 2 review: “Darker and sadder than the first year, but there’s still a lot of fun to be had with the 11th Street Kids.”

Wednesday season 2 part 1 review: “Complex and exciting but weighed down by too many subplots”

Alien: Earth review: “Arguably the franchise’s strongest outing since James Cameron’s Aliens”

GamesRadar+ is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Contact Future’s experts

Terms and conditions

Privacy policy

Cookies policy

Advertise with us

Review guidelines

Write for us

Accessibility Statement

Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury,

BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait…