Team Cherry Explains Silksong’s Six-Year Wait and Confirms DLC

After six years of anticipation, Hollow Knight: Silksong is finally landing on September 4, 2025.

But in true Team Cherry fashion, the studio isn’t slowing down – the developers have already confirmed that downloadable content is in the works.

In a candid interview with Bloomberg, co-founders Ari Gibson and William Pellen explained why Silksong’s development stretched out so long. It wasn’t technical roadblocks or corporate meddling that delayed the release. Instead, the team kept chasing fun ideas and refused to stop expanding their vision. “Every time we thought we were close, we added something new,” Gibson admitted. “It became another giant, maybe even bigger than the first game.”

Unlike other studios forced to cut or rebuild entire sections mid-development, Team Cherry never faced a collapse – they simply couldn’t stop themselves from creating. New towns, quest systems, and an expansive world kept stacking on, turning what started as a sequel into an enormous standalone adventure. And with Hollow Knight having sold over 15 million copies, the team had the financial runway to take their time without pressure from publishers.

For Gibson, the biggest challenge was knowing when to stop. “At some point I had to put the pencil down,” he said. “Every sketch became a feature. If I didn’t stop, it could’ve taken 15 years.”

The studio also chose to keep its structure small. While many studios scale up to ship faster, Team Cherry preferred to maintain a tight-knit group, trading speed for creative control and polish. In fact, the last two years were spent almost entirely on bug fixing and refinement.

Even now, they’re holding reviews until after launch, believing it would be unfair for critics to play before the Kickstarter backers who supported them from the beginning. That means players and press alike will dive in on release day together.

The story here isn’t one of burnout or broken promises. It’s about an indie studio that loved its own creation too much to rush it out – and is already eager to build more content for it.