Summary
- A suspected ARG teasing Hollow Knight: Silksong turned out to be a hoax, sparking outrage in the community.
- The cake theory, sparked by a cryptic tweet from a developer, was debunked by another creator as a "nothing burger."
- Confusion and disappointment loom over Team Cherry's handling of communication.
The community surrounding the practically mythical Hollow Knight: Silksong is outraged after what initially appeared to be an ARG teasing the game was allegedly revealed by one of the title's developers to be a "nothing burger," one which many fans suspect was designed to deliberately mislead the fanbase. Fans still hopeful for Hollow Knight: Silksong have been taken on a wild ride over the past few days, with this crazy "fake ARG" all beginning with a.jpeg of a cake.
"Cake Theory," as it was quickly dubbed by fans, became an instant craze among the information-starved Silksong community when Team Cherry co-director William Pellen changed his Twitter profile picture to that of a cake on January 15th. This was accompanied by a single tweet that told his followers, "Something big is coming. Keep your eyes closed tomorrow." Fans invested in the fabled Hollow Knight sequel, who haven't heard so much of a peep about Silksong since its last official trailer released about two and a half years ago, immediately began digging for further clues and desperately searching for some meaning in Pellen's cryptic new Twitter username.
Do You Think 2025 Is The Year We Finally Get Silksong?
I'm honestly starting to lose hope for Hollow Knight: Silksong coming out at all. Every year it seems more and more like something went wrong in its development or at Team Cherry itself, it wasn't long ago that Silksong was featured in a compilation of Xbox games that were guaranteed to be coming out within the next 12 months, and that video came out in 2023. With virtually no news since its delay, I honestly don't think it's coming out in 2025. And if it doesn't come out this next year, and if we don't get any news in 2025, I think a lot of people are going to disembark what was once an unstoppable hype train for the sequel to one of the most beloved indie games ever made.
This brief revitalization of the Silksong community quickly soured following a tweet from Hollow Knight enthusiast and content creator fireb0rn, however. The creator claimed that Matthew "Leth" Griffin had reached out to them directly, telling them that this suspected Silksong ARG wasn't real and that the mysterious changes made on Pellen's Twitter account held no real meaning concerning the game. That's not to say that Pellen's equally strange tweet didn't hold any weight, though - just a day after the post, Nintendo officially unveiled the successor to the Switch for the first time.
This Fruitless Silksong ARG Bodes Poorly For Team Cherry
To add to the curiosity, when fans initially reverse-searched the cake image used as Pellen's profile picture, they found that it was from a recipe published last year on April 2nd - the same date that Nintendo has confirmed a Direct for later this year, which will give gamers a better look at the anticipated console. This could be a coincidence of astronomical proportions regarding the Team Cherry developer's tweet. While unlikely, it's also possible that the information in fireb0rn's tweet may not be true either. A variety of questions remain, adding to fans' confusion.
In the unlikely case that this was an attempt by Team Cherry to downplay the hype for a bigger surprise later this year, this was not the way to do it. Between the tease itself and Team Cherry's poor communication with fans on the matter, the developer's community across every corner of the internet is furious. Fans of Hollow Knight and its potential sequel have called Team Cherry's actions "immature and unprofessional," with this fiasco essentially acting as the final straw for many players who have been enduring radio silence since Silksong's initial reveal nearly six years ago.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 91 /100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- September 4, 2025
- ESRB
- Everyone 10+ / Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood
- Developer(s)
- Team Cherry
- Publisher(s)
- Team Cherry
WHERE TO PLAY
Become the Princess Knight
As the lethal hunter Hornet, adventure through a kingdom ruled by silk and song! Captured and taken to this unfamiliar world, prepare to battle mighty foes and solve ancient mysteries as you ascend on a deadly pilgrimage to the kingdom’s peak.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is the epic sequel to Hollow Knight, the award winning action-adventure. Journey to all-new lands, discover new powers, battle vast hordes of bugs and beasts and uncover secrets tied to your nature and your past.
- Franchise
- Hollow Knight
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC
