Indie devs are delaying their games to avoid competing against Silksong

Hollow Knight Silksong is one of the most anticipated games of the year, and some indie developers aren't willing to risk going up against it.

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At least three independent game developers have moved their projects out of the blast radius of Silksong's expected megaton launch. Competition is always fierce in the games industry, and interest in indie games has grown particularly over the last few years, leading to some eclectic and unpredictable surprise hits. Everyone wants to be the next big thing, or at least make their money back, but that's hard to do if you're going up against fierce competition.

That's why some devs are delaying their games to avoid competing directly with Hollow Knight Silksong, at least on the game's September 4 launch day.

Necrosoft delayed their tactical RPG Demonschool from September 3 into November 19, presumably to give Silksong a clear runway.

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Aeternum Game Studios delayed their hack-and-slash platformer Aeterna Lucis from September into 2026. The devs explain that Silksong would overshadow their game; "we are fully aware that our game wouldn't have the visibility it deserves." A lack of devkits was also a reason that Aeterna Lucis was pushed back.

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Just today, Devolver Digital delayed Baby Steps from its original September 8 launch to September 23. And they did it in the most hilarious way possible:

The anticipation for Silksong seems to only grow as Hollow Knight keeps setting concurrent peak player records on Steam. Just six hours ago, Hollow Knight reached over 45.5k players on Steam, setting a new all-time peak.