Category: Video Games

Happy Hollow Knight: Silksong launch day to all who celebrate! I’ve only played three hours so far and I’m already overwhelmed in the best possible way. It took no time at all for me to get completely lost in the world of this hotly anticipated sequel, one that shortens the intimidating lead-in area its predecessor had in order to more quickly give you branching paths to pick from and the tools to explore them more confidently. It’s too early to get a real sense of where things will go, how all the changes it makes to stuff like upgrades and abilities will play out, or how big this beautiful new land truly is, but my impression so far is that Silksong is already managing to meet the sky-high expectations that have been set for it.

One of the most immediate differences Hollow Knight fans will notice is that our new hero, Hornet, isn’t the silent type like her pint-sized companion from the original. She has personality and charm, chatting with the bugs you meet across the world of Pharloom. I was initially worried that this might change the quiet tone in an unappealing way, but Hornet is still a fairly stoic character overall – confident and cautiously friendly, happy to speak her mind when she feels she should, but still reclusive in a way that allows others to do most of the talking. So it’s a shift, especially when she explains something a little more directly than Hollow Knight’s vague dialogue ever would, but one I am enjoying for the moment.

It also helps that the writing is top notch once again. It’s often poetic and illusive in a way that never feels overly pompous, leaving plenty of room for serious characters and silly gags alike. An early favorite of mine is a pilgrim singing to a door in an attempt to open it, only for them to claim the credit when you find the lever that actually does so. All the attention to quality and detail that made Hollow Knight a true standout is still alive and well here, with areas I can’t wait to learn more about, characters I am excited to get to know, and stellar music I can already tell I am going to be listening to for a long time to come.

Another aspect I am excited to see evolve are the options for customization. Ability-granting charms are color-coded this time around, meaning you have to pick your priorities if certain items overlap – for example, a lot of the early options I’ve found go into the yellow slot, making me choose if I want enemies to drop more currency or if I want to have it automatically be picked up for me when they do. That choice extends into a secondary attack (the only one I’ve found so far is a quick throwing dagger), and even Crests that more drastically change your attack in a way that feels like you are swapping weapons.

It seems like a huge amount of flexibility, and I’m excited to see if the options I will unlock let me truly start crafting coherent builds in the way I am hoping. This system runs the risk of offering a lot of false choices or leading you down certain paths that are just obviously better than others, but if Team Cherry has figured out the proper tuning, it could also open the door to supporting massively different playstyles based entirely on your own tastes.

I imagine we’ll need to take advantage of those options, too, because Silksong isn’t messing around. It’s not afraid to punish you, such as the way you drop all of a currency called Rosaries when you die and have to do a corpse run to the location you were killed to retrieve them, and enemies can be tough enough to force you to take that walk if you push the limits of your exploration too far. That said, Silksong has a lot of ways to mitigate that punishment, such as letting you pay to stash your extra Rosaries in the form of a consumable item, giving you an early option to lose less of them on death, and not tying every unlockable to that single resource in case the worst does occur. It’s still early, but I think this will result in less frustration overall relative to Hollow Knight.

Similarly, one of the most common reasons people would bounce off the original was the initially sparse map system – the early areas branch in a way that meant you could miss the map for a long while, and then you had to return to town to buy upgrades before it updated or even showed you on it. You still need those upgrades, but the place you get them is now located right on your path before things start to open up, and that happens much earlier, so that’s another rough edge smartly smoothed down. It’s still a dangerous thrill when you are exploring an uncharted area for the first time, trying to push your luck in search of that next resting spot, but that’s no longer a feeling you are forced into before you’ve even found your footing.

I could keep digging into more early observations, but honestly I just can’t wait to stop typing this so I can dive back in. I haven’t even wrapped my head around how big this thing is going to be – and if its achievement for speedrunning 100% completion is any indication it could be quite large, as you now have to do that in under 30 hours compared to Hollow Knight’s 20. But so far Silksong is exactly what I want from a sequel like this: it’s not completely reinventing the wheel or messing with all the things that made the first game so incredible, but it’s also not resting on its laurels. No part of it feels untouched, and as far as I can tell right now, it somehow feels even better for it.

Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has a cameo role in Team Cherry’s new mega hit indie game, Hollow Knight: Silksong.

The sequel to Team Cherry’s original bleak and beloved metroidvania game finally launched across PC and consoles earlier today, bringing an end to more than six painful years of anticipation. As what is sure to be millions of fans swarm to see if the wait was worth it, The Verge has pointed out that the Hollow Knight: Silksong credits tease a special cameo from one of the most notable indie developers of the last decade.

Those who navigate to the Hollow Knight sequel’s credits – which can be found in the “extras” option on the main menu – will notice that Barone is featured among the shortlist of names included under “Additional Character Voices.” It means that, if you know where to look, you’ll be able to hear the mastermind behind farming sim sensation Stardew Valley among those lending their voice talents to the land of Pharloom and all of its insect inhabitants.

Civilization VII developer Firaxis has laid off an unknown number of individuals today, despite the insistance of Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick that the game’s sales are consistent with expectations.

Today, a number of Firaxis employees announced across social media that they had been let go, including members of production, narrative, and art. Civilization VII publisher 2K confirmed the layoffs to Game Developer, saying the studio was restructuring and optimizing its development process for “adaptability, collaboration, and creativity.” The company did not confirm the number of individuals impacted.

Firaxis released Civilization VII earlier this year, and the game has since received a mixed reception on Steam amid player complaints about the game’s user interface, lack of map variety, and that it was missing expected features. Since then, Firaxis has released a number of updates to the game to improve it in these areas.

In the meantime, Strauss Zelnick, CEO of 2K parent Take-Two, has said that while Civilization VII did get off to a “slow start”, the company’s internal projections for the “lifetime value” of the game still match initial expectations.

“I think the key thing is that Civ has always been a slow burn. It’s always been a title that had — I’m not really a big believer in the long tail theory of the entertainment business — but Civ is an example of that theory. And right now our projections for the lifetime value of the title are very consistent with our initial expectations for the title.

“So while we were off to a slow start and while we have had to make changes — and there are more changes coming — I feel like consumer uptake is better and better and we feel really good about the title. I think over time it’s going to take its place in its civilization pantheon in a very successful, credible way.”

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is already a huge hit on Steam despite causing Valve’s storefront to crash, posting massive concurrent player numbers.

At the time of this article’s publication, and as those storefront problems ease, Silksong was on a huge 453,993 concurrent players on Steam, making it the third most-played game on Valve’s platform behind only Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2.

This number looks set to rise, too, as more people download the game ahead of its first weekend on sale. The question now is, just how big will it be? It’s already the 29th most-played game on Steam of all-time, with the likes of Helldivers 2 in its sights.

Silksong is one of the most anticipated games of 2025. Over six years after its initial announcement and as the most wishlisted game on Steam, Silksong finally launched today, September 4, across PC, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S priced $19.99 and weighing in at 7.62GB.

Of course, Silksong’s true player count will be much bigger across all platforms. Neither Sony, Nintendo nor Microsoft make player numbers public, but Silksong crashed those storefronts, too, so it will be massive everywhere. And let’s remember Silksong is a day-one Game Pass title. Yep, this one’s enormous, perhaps even the biggest indie game launch of all time.

Little was known about Silksong ahead of launch, so players are only now discovering its secrets. One of the first revelations is the achievements list (Silksong has 52 Achievements and 53 Trophies to unlock and discover).

Be sure to check out IGN’s Silksong coverage, which includes the story of the superfan behind the YouTube Channel Daily Silksong News, who can finally rest after an incredible 1,693 days of videos.

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Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.