This is an open letter to the staff at Team Cherry. If anybody knows who represents them, or knows how to get into contact with the team, please send this to them and let them know that my work email is Jared@videogame.town!

Dear Team Cherry,

What the hell is going on over there? I mean this sincerely because clearly something is wrong. Blink twice if you’re in danger. The internet, me included, cannot tolerate this behavior any longer. No one on planet earth is obligated to be informed about your work process, your decision making, your progress on any game you may or may not be working on, or anything about you individually. But I would imagine that A) you are indeed working on “Hollow Knight: Silksong,” B) you would like people to purchase it so you can be compensated, and C) it is, in fact, real and not a mirage.

It turned out “Everwild” and “Perfect Dark” were fictitious, fugazi, fake, imaginary, a ruse, if you will. Millions are worried the same is the case for one of the most highly anticipated, and memed-to-death, games being promoted in our eager, hungry faces.

But the key word there is promoted because that would actually entail, you know, doing that. To any level. It’s one thing to have a game developer head down working on a project, life fulfilling art, not know how to send out a press release. It’s another to bury your heads in the sand, not hire one freelance person to simply say words out loud, or type them on a keyboard, which could only benefit the entire studio.

Just a thought: Hire me.

I’m just trying to help you! Seems like you need it, because you aren’t just shooting yourself and your title in the foot, it’s like sawing it off and ignoring the bleeding and the smell we all have to endure. It’s ridiculous and upsetting, and frankly unbecoming and unprofessional from an industry standpoint. Downright irresponsible to be this boneheaded.

I could get the word out for you! I could be your mouthpiece, the voice for a group of people hellbent on deafening us with your silence. It’s as if a cruel joke is being played on the gaming community, and absolutely none of what you’re doing makes sense. Let’s go over the timeline, a true showcase in how NOT to announce, promote, market, or update anybody on an in-development game for sale (presumably soon, this could all be a years long prank for all we know).

2017

You release “Hollow Knight” to critical and commercial acclaim! Good job. You’ll never know success like this again unless you get your act together.

2019

On February 14th, you revealed the game in full, telling us, the ravenous fan base, that this was originally conceived as DLC for the first game, but is now a standalone sequel. Wonderful news! You put out a blog post, a dev diary, and more details. There’s even a personalized letter and everything. What a world that was, pre-COVID.

More blog updates would be appreciated! You know, something all other companies and studios use to grow interest in a game, snowball hype, foster trust in a scene, build a community, etc. Normal behavior.

Later in the year, back at the age old tradition known as E3, you have the game playable at the Nintendo booth. This is a true sign that the game is close to releasing, because why make a vertical slice demo only for there to be five more years of development time? This is called foreshadowing, folks.

2020

Pandemic hits, and everyone gets a pass as the world changes for the worse. A full year after E3 2019, you (being Team Cherry, the people reading this) do an ARG puzzle thing for fans to uncover NPCs. Sure, why not. I wouldn’t have done such a thing until closer to release, but hey, what do I know? Spending time on that is surely going to add up to an upcoming release date.

Six months go by, and there’s an Edge cover story with more info from co-directors Ari Gibson and William Pellen. Love it, more of this please.

2021

Radio silence. Memes begin on Reddit. This is a textbook example of what not to do. Doing nothing is bad. Do something.

2022

PC Gamer tells us in February that the game is still being worked on despite the lack of outward updates. Is it though? Why do we take anybody at their words when things get delayed and cancelled all of the time? What good is giving a non-statement instead of telling us THE TRUTH? Having an open communication or some empty blanket statement would have been better than a year of NOTHING, and then “we are hard at work.” That’s a PR no-no. That’s less than nothing — that’s poison.

Microsoft then shows us a new trailer, and says its coming to Game Pass within the next twelve months. Ha, fat chance. By the way, this isn’t Team Cherry feeding us this, Phil Spencer is. His words are more weightless than paper — he’s a business executive. Sony says the game will come to PS4 a few months later. Yeah, sure buddy.

2023

Marketing and publishing director Matthew Griffin says on May 10th that the game was delayed, but “development is still continuing.” Well, DUH, obviously it was delayed, because everybody lied to us about when it was coming out.

Rule one is to always keep the game at the forefront of our minds, so we remain interested in buying and playing it, but rule two is to NEVER utter a release window unless you are absolutely SURE it’s a few months away — the Bethesda model. Either keep it under wraps until it is actually READY or share more insights into the development like Super Giant Games has done with “Hades” and “Hades II” in early access.

2024

It’s been five years since the game was announced, and nary a peep has been uttered since. If there was a living, breathing marketing directorm I’m sure this person would have done his or her job by now, but all we get is a pathetic Discord “still hard at work on the game” message that does nothing and satisfies no one.

Utterly useless. No interviews, no art work, no snippets, no details, no information. Just bananas to live like this! The pressure mounts, the rumors spread, the disappointment trends online, and only the worst occurs for both the fans and the people making the game.

2025

A sane person would have come out, and given a real statement — not just uttering the phrase “this thing is in active development.” At the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, we see a sizzle reel of the game, and literally nothing else. Nintendo has screenshots, but at this point, that’s worthless.

Ten seconds? That’s all we get? What have you been working on this entire time???

Soon, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image announces it’ll have “Silksong” on display at the museum. I’ve been there before, the single best experience I’ve ever had at a museum. There was a room dedicated to “Untitled Goose Game” and “Hollow Knight.” This is a bad decision for a game that goes MIA for over a decade. Horrible optics. For the record, I would have advised against this as a deadline.

Then, the Xbox Games Showcase re-introduces us to a few more tasty morsels, precious few seconds of gameplay… IN A ROG ALLY TRAILER? Who thought this was a good idea? No release for either the hardware or the game is given, and a paltry word about it releasing is “not tied to a console release.” Why should anyone believe this is coming before Christmas 2025? There’s no benefit of the doubt, either show us the game or don’t, but don’t pee on our leg and tell us it’s raining.

This has to be a joke, right? Just made-up B-roll footage, recycled materials. None of this is coming out, is it? Just tell us.

Team Cherry, I beg of you, this is not the way to market a video game. Under any circumstance. Show us what’s going on, say something, share more, be specific. This is unsustainable and irresponsible. You won the Unity Most Anticipated Award in 2022, saying “it can’t be too much longer, surely!” and then won it AGAIN in 2024. You didn’t even acknowledge the second win.

Finally, as a free nugget of advice, “Silk Song” should be two words. Not just for the SEO, but because nobody is going to think that it’s one word. “Silksong” is not a word. Fix it.

Signed,

Jared Russo

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Image credit: “Hollow Knight: Silksong,” Team Cherry