Another game-related controversy to keep the chattering going. Honestly, this particular movie we have seen before. Remember Baldur’s Gate 3 launch night when suddenly all developers would quickly brush it off as an anomaly and “really not to be set standards”? Now, the opposite is happening with Hollow Knight, Silksong, except this time, it’s about price and timing instead.
It really blew up on social media when LegacyKillaHD threw out the wild claim that Silksong is getting exactly the same treatment that BG3 got: all sorts of game developers come out and say some nasty things about the price and release strategy. And man, the scattered community reactions? No one is holding back.
Essentially, indie devs are sore about the price, timing, and Silksong. And odd because if you watch any bit of this industry, you know that Hollow Knight was arguably “best indie game ever created.” People have been waiting for Silksong FOR YEARS!
Another little tidbit everybody should know: some devs are allegedly complaining that Silksong’s success might raise expectations from gamers in general on indie games. Like user Kevin Greene basically saying it’s “jealousy” and that these devs know they “do not have the skills or talent to make a game with the same scope.” Ouch.
John, another user, outright declared it “jealousy and insecurity,” opining that Team Cherry (the Hollow Knight devs) do not partake in this social media circus that others do, and so the smaller developers get these feelings. Like, “you think you’re better than us?” vibes.
What’s really interesting, though, is that there are people who’s actually making reasonable points amid all the drama. DJNottingham1 mentioned that they can kind of understand the timing complaint- it would suck to have your game’s release window suddenly include one of the most hyped games in years- but then immediately followed up with “complaining about the price of your games is a huge skill issue though.” And that, honestly, was fair.
Well, price is the thing really tripping everybody up here. What they’re saying is that Silksong is maybe $20 with lowball pricing set to destroy the indie market. But like… have these people stepped out of their homes and seen a myriad of incredible quality indie games with a price tag of $20 or lower? Vampire Survivors? Balatro? Dead Cells? All worthy of their respective acclaim and at similar price points.
On the other hand, Manny Puig vehemently condemned Silksong as “overhyped trash that isn’t worth more than $20,” and added that the figures were unimpressive given the price. Then the fun started as many users quickly dismissed those statements, arguing that these numbers would not have been anywhere near this high if they had been for full price sales. The whole back and forth is honestly kind of fun to watch.
Some scenarios are stealing the spotlight in all these comments: inferiority complex, as user Miller described it. Instead of uplifting all, some people from the indie scene prefer to drag down the projects that have been doing well. That is, rather than making better games themselves, they decide to criticize the ones that are actually doing well.
And this isn’t even the first time it’s happened! User Kal mentioned that the same thing happened with Elden Ring- big studio devs were apparently mad about why people liked that game instead of whatever they were making. It’s like some devs would rather bitch about successful games than, I don’t know, make successful games themselves.
Some, meanwhile, offer fairly reasonable commentary. User Tabula made the good point that sure, other indies will likely be compared to Silksong, but who’s to say it matters? They used BG3 as the example; by that logic, every RPG thereafter should have bombed, which obviously did not happen.
The whole timing argument is the only one that kinda makes sense. Like if you’re a small developer who planned your release date for months and then suddenly one of the most anticipated games of the year drops into your release window with two weeks notice? That would definitely suck. At least, Herudin pointed out: Little Witch in the Woods was supposed to release the same day as Silksong, but they just moved their date and showed respect to Team Cherry. No drama needed.
Basically, this does seem like the jealousy and insecurity of the indie development community involves a majority. When a game like Hollow Knight Silksong comes along with massive hype, reasonable pricing, and what looks like incredible quality, it probably makes some other developers nervous about their own projects. And instead of motivating themselves to improve, they’re going to criticize.
The gaming community itself seems largely united against the nonsense being trashed out. Most players are just excited about finally getting their hands on Silksong after such a long time, and they don’t really care about whatever behind-the-scenes drama that other developers are stirring up. If the game is good, people will buy it; if it is not, they will not. It’s simpler than that.
What is crazy is that the scenario repeats itself every time a game comes along that blows away expectations. First, they called BG3 an “anomaly” for being successful; now, they’re trying to do Silksong in for how it priced and when it launched. It’s about time developers just concentrated on making good games instead of whining about successful ones, isn’t it?
All this drama ain’t gonna hold Silksong back from being one of the biggest indie releases of the year probably. If anything, it’s only giving the game more exposure. Players don’t care about dev drama; they care about good games. And if Silksong comes close in quality to the first title, all this moaning is going to count for nothing.
Now, this whole situation paints a picture of the fact that there are still big parts of the games industry that have a lot maturing to do. Instead of bouncing each other’s wins, there is still this petty kind of jealousy that springs up whenever a title does really well. That’s embarrassing to witness, but at least the real players seem to have their priorities straight – they want to go ahead and play some good games regardless of what devs are arguing about on Twitter.
So that’s about where we’re at with this whole Silksong price drama thing. Another day, another gaming controversy that probably never needed to be a controversy. Can we just play the games please?
