Hollow Knight: Silksong was announced years ago, and it has felt about that long since the game has received a formal update. Fans held out hope that this Nintendo Indie World Showcase would be where Hollow Knight: Silksong makes its triumphant return, and when it didn't, it began trending online.
Team Cherry's original game, Hollow Knight, was a beautiful action-adventure game that controlled seamlessly and featured a world steeped with mystery. When Hollow Knight: Silksong was revealed in 2019, fans immediately set their heart ablaze for the sequel, excited to see how it improves on the original. Some details about Hollow Knight: Silksong have been released in the time since its initial unveiling, like who players will be controlling this time around, but largely, not a whole lot about the game is known. As such, the game's mystery has taken on meme status in the gaming community, its continued lack of presence in major events rivaling the likes of Elden Ring during its news hiatus.
It didn't take long for Hollow Knight: Silksong to trend on Twitter following today's Nintendo Indie World event. The keywords "Hollow Knight," "Silksong," and the game's full title were all trending, with Twitter describing the trend, "Some share their disappointment after Hollow Knight: Silksong did not appear during the Nintendo Indie World Showcase on Wednesday." As one of the most anticipated indie titles in recent memory, it is reasonable for fans to expect Hollow Knight: Silksong to appear in an event dedicated to this sect of the gaming industry, though fans also hoped Silksong would appear at E3 2021 before Team Cherry shut it down.
Some were calling the lack of Silksong prior to the Nintendo Indie World Showcase even starting. In advance of the show, V for Valhalla shared a clever edit showing the Indie World logo except the text is edited to say "No Silksong" with the time and date, as if the game's disappearance was the event itself. After the show, many posts involving Hollow Knight characters and clowns were posted, the ongoing self-deprecating trend emphasizing one's humiliation in believing something would appear and getting their hopes up.
While a lot of these conversations are in good fun, it is important to remember that Team Cherry is a very small team. While there is the point that perhaps it should not have revealed Silksong as early as it did, one can also not blame them for trying to ride the excitement coming off the hot success that was the original Hollow Knight. When Silksong trends nowadays, it is mostly because of fans expressing their desire to see more of the game, not out of ill intent for the developers taking too long, but there are always those people nonetheless. Hollow Knight: Silksong will release when it's ready, and hopefully that day is coming soon.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is currently in development.