Hollow Knight Silksong's Nintendo Direct no-show just cost us lots of free games

'Silksong?' A question posed in every livestream chat since what feels like the dawn of time, for years met with deafening silence and an intense wave of disappointment. Summer Game Fests and Gamescoms have come and gone for years, none of them providing even a sliver of information on perhaps the most highly anticipated videogame sequel out there. And then, right at the end of Nintendo's Switch 2 reveal, it appeared from nowhere: the Hollow Knight Silksong release window, simply set for 2025. Since then the hype has continued to skyrocket, and today's Nintendo Direct felt like the perfect time for yet more info to drop. That, however, simply wasn't to be.

In the wake of Xbox's confirmation that a Hollow Knight Silksong demo will be playable at Gamescom on its new ASUS handheld, today felt like the day that we'd hear something about Team Cherry's hotly anticipated sequel. While the full Hollow Knight Silksong release date felt somewhat unlikely, perhaps we'd see a demo announcement, or even a new trailer. Nintendo came through once before, after all.

But today's showcase ends in disappointment - just another day, just another livestream. Perhaps the most disappointing thing, however, is the vast array of free PC games I just missed out on. Thanks, Team Cherry, I wanted to increase my already significant backlog - how dare you.

You see, in preparation for today's Nintendo Direct, various developers stated that, if Silksong appeared, they'd give away codes for their games. Pere Albacar, one half of Guateke Studios, for example, promised free Steam keys for the duo's upcoming open-world game Sands of Hope if you left a comment on his post. With over 68k likes and 34k comments, I'd say a lot of people were hopeful that there was going to be some Silksong news.

Similarly, Silver Lining Interactive promised to make every game that it has published "free forever" if there was a Silksong announcement. That would have included everything from indie darling Spirit of the North to the gorgeous Selfloss and aptly named Definitely Not Fried Chicken, so honestly Team Cherry I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed. I could have had everything from Rusty's Retirement to Dokimon Quest.

If you, like me, were looking to pad out your library with some new adventures courtesy of Team Cherry, then I've got a list of the best free Steam games, which isn't quite as sweet but at least it's something. Alternatively, if you're looking for something to tide you over while we wait for anything vaguely Hollow Knight related, we have a list of the best Metroidvanias.

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