Let’s Talk About Silksong
I want to take a break from my typical articles and blogs and do something a little bit different. I’m going to talk about Hollow Knight: Silksong. Silksong is the sequel to the extremely successful, highly acclaimed indie metroidvania game, Hollow Knight by Australian developer Team Cherry.
Now, me talking about a video game isn’t particularly unusual. I cover stories told in all kinds of different media in my articles. I recently wrote an entire article just discussing the benefits of storytelling in assorted different mediums. However, in this article, I will not be discussing Silksong’s story. I will also not be talking about its artistry, worldbuilding or even the process of creating a video game. For the matter, I won’t be talking about gameplay either. I haven’t even played Hollow Knight: Silksong or the original Hollow Knight - and this isn’t likely to change. I simply am not particularly interested in metroidvanias and I am also much, much too bad at games with much too short a temper to properly enjoy playing a game with a famously high difficulty curve.
At this point, you’re probably wondering just what the hell I am going to talk about then. I want to discuss Silksong as a phenomenon - and what it means and what it could mean going forward. I think it is important to draw attention to what Silksong has achieved and to encourage as many people as possible to contribute to the space it inhabits in the landscape. Since a surprisingly large number of you are invested in what I have to say about things, this seems like a good opportunity to do that.
First some backstory and context. Hollow Knight was released by the aforementioned Team Cherry - a tiny indie studio - in 2017 after a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised around $57,000 for development. It was then published across multiple platforms for around $30 adjusting for inflation and sold over 500,000 copies by the end of 2017. That’s fifteen million dollars - many times the cost of development. That is a resounding success, even before factoring in that many regard Hollow Knight as one of the best games ever made.
Now, fast forward to 2025 and it is time for the release of Hollow Knight: Silksong - a game that was originally going to be extra downloadable content but soon grew into a much-anticipated full sequel. Its release price is roughly equivalent in value to the original cost of Hollow Knight, being just under $30. At launch, buyers were so excited that the extreme activity saw the Steam store crash. According to reports like this the game has already sold over two million copies and made over thirty-six million dollars. By most accounts, it’s also as good as the original Hollow Knight - if not better - as well. This is an incredible achievement from a small development studio from Adelaide with a handful of members.
So, why am I bringing this up? I’m not a gaming blogger or journalist. But I am a fan of video games. I am a lover of the arts and creative industries in general. I am both a creator and a consumer. I think as many voices as possible in all aspects of creative industries - and especially people who are gamers or game developers - should take note of this.
If we compare Silksong to the cost of AAA games such as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth or Elden Ring - or even far less extensive and complex games like NBA 2K26 and Mario Kart World, there’s a clear difference here. Elden Ring costs around $90, NBA is around $100, FFVII Rebirth is about $105 and Mario Kart World comes in at a staggering (near) $120. Now, in fairness, games like Elden Ring and FFVII Rebirth are games with very expansive worlds, mechanics and stories and are much more graphically demanding than a game like Silksong. AAA games can cost anywhere from 20 million USD to over 200 million USD to make. I’m not trying to tell you that every single AAA title is fleecing you. The fact that games cost so much now can be largely chalked up to alarmingly high rates of inflation and a ridiculous, poorly managed cost of living in most of the world. But I find it very hard to believe that games like Mario Kart World cost the same as games like Elden Ring to make. I’m not an expert, but I’m confident you could create a Mario Kart game for pretty close to the cost it took to create Silksong. And, to be clear, it’s not just Nintendo I’m glaring at through my screen while writing this.
It’s clear that games do not need to cost $100 or more to be profitable. Small studios like Team Cherry have shown us time and time again that beautiful, narratively and mechanically engaging works of art can be created with smaller costs and smaller price tags. Even much more demanding games, like Expedition 33 (which is also one of the best selling and most acclaimed games of recent times), can be made for a lot less and sold for a comparatively modest $62.95 - which feels a lot closer to the $50 games I remember from my teenage years. Some titles obviously do cost an insane amount to make and therefore need to cost more to buy, but a lot of things don’t have to as well. Smaller developers have been releasing products of higher quality for far less.
Smaller, independent creations can be profitable and succeed, without compromising on creative integrity or quality. But, they can only do that with our help. They can only do that if consumers, financers and publishers are willing to invest in these products. Australia could easily have a booming creative industry that would take the world by storm if we - individuals, companies and even the government - invested more in our creative scenes. We could have fifty Team Cherries. We could have one hundred. But we’re apparently much more interested in letting enormous companies in the US and Japan take us for a ride while producing work of far lesser merit.
To be clear again, I’m not saying all AAA releases are bad or unfair or anything of the sort. Like I said, games like the Final Fantasy VII Remake games and Elden Ring exist. But for every Elden Ring, there’s ten other AAA games that left us feeling let down… and then we all buy the next one anyway. I won’t tell you to stop buying AAA releases entirely. I’m not going to either. But I am saying that we shouldn’t accept less from AAA releases than we do from incredible indie creators like the people at Team Cherry. If companies are going to charge us $120 for a game, they need to make it feel like it’s worth $120 dollars.
We can show those big AAA companies that by being more discerning with our purchases. More importantly though, we can show them that by continuing to support small studios who are doing good work. If there’s ten AAA let downs to every success, then there’s probably hundreds of indie creations not getting the respect or support they deserve for every Silksong out there.
This article has mostly been about the gaming industry, but this is true for all creative spaces. It is very, very hard for smaller companies and independent creators to compete with the massive corporations that dominate creative industries. It’s all too easy for big companies to throw money around and leverage that towards greater profits and it’s very easy for us to get swept up in all that marketing hype while those of us who work in creative spaces at a smaller scale struggle to get noticed among a flood of competitors - including those big corporations.
Industries like gaming, film making, music and writing are not sustainable like this. With the cost of living still going up and so little interest in fixing that from people in power, it is getting harder and harder for consumers to actually engage with all the media we want to. Eventually, that bubble is going to burst. But there is no reason for that to happen when we can invest more in smaller creators who don’t spend as much on creating and marketing their products and don’t charge an exorbitant amount for their products.
Ordinarily, I would end an article like this by asking you to support me as well. It isn’t a secret that I have skin in this game. I’m not a game developer, but I am an independent creative trying to compete with companies with a lot more money and reach that I have access to. However, I feel like flooding this article with links to my own work would defeat the point a little bit. If you want to support me, you can easily find the links to do that.
Instead, I’m going to wrap this up by asking you to support any indie creator you like. Whoever they are and whatever medium they work in - books, games, films - it doesn’t matter. Silksong shows us what can be achieved when we support independent creators and I firmly believe that is the way forward to creating booming and healthy creative scenes not just here, but the world over.
