Team Cherry’s highly-anticipated sequel Hollow Knight: Silksong has finally popped up on the Xbox Store, just in time for April Fool’s Day 2024. While the timing is odd, and has caused a great deal of confusion amongst keen players, the Xbox Store listing does appear to be legitimate.
It was first spotted by Xbox product marketing manager Tao Sila, and was later shared by other members of the Xbox team, who indicated it was not, in fact, an April Fool’s Day joke, but another firm clue about the arrival of the long-gestating game.
Hollow Knight: Silksong was announced way back in 2019 and has since appeared sporadically in virtual game showcases. In 2022, it appeared in a showcase that was designed for games releasing within the following 12 months, but it failed to appear in 2023. That led to much speculation about its status, and rumours of a potential delay to 2024.
At this stage, a release date remains unclear, and Team Cherry has not revealed why Silksong has appeared on the Xbox Store. The listing does provide some new information, however.
Read: Hollow Knight: Silksong has been delayed, here’s the reason
While most of the details in the new Hollow Knight: Silksong listing are standard – there’s a brief description of the plot and the journey of protagonist Hornet, and some screenshots – there is also a new Everyone 10+ ESRB rating included, for “Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood.”
As GamesRadar+ points out, this ESRB rating does not appear to be live on the ESRB website yet, so it could be a general rating based on the original Hollow Knight rating, rather than a unique one for Silksong. That said, if this is the true rating for the game, it may be closer to release than expected.
Typically, a game is rated towards the end of its development cycle, as it nears launch. Should that be the case, we can expect news of Hollow Knight: Silksong shortly.
On the other hand, it’s also important to consider that April Fool’s Day remnants are still trickling in, and that Silksong listings have been live on the Nintendo eShop, PlayStation, and Steam storefronts for many months. For now, it’s best to keep speculation in check and wait for official news from Team Cherry.
