Delayed for Silksong — then Hades 2 dropped right on top
When Team Cherry announced Hollow Knight: Silksong’s release on Aug. 21 for Sept. 4, several indie teams moved their launch dates to avoid the overlap. Then Supergiant surprised everyone by giving Hades 2 a short early announcement and a Sept. 25 1.0 launch, which pushed some of those same indie releases right into Hades 2’s shadow.
- Hades 2’s short notice and its effects
- Case studies: Cloverpit, Baby Steps, Sworn, The Rogue Prince of Persia
- Bigger picture: indie calendars and competing launches
Silksong announcement and immediate industry reaction
Team Cherry announced the release date for Hollow Knight: Silksong on Aug. 21, with the game arriving on Sept. 4. Consequently, multiple indie publishers publicly said they would delay releases that had been planned for early September. The short window between announcement and launch left some teams little time to keep planned dates without risking direct competition with a high-profile indie sequel.
Who delayed and why
At least half a dozen companies publicly moved release dates after the Silksong announcement. For example, publisher Ysbryd Games pushed its tactics RPG Demonschool from Sept. 3 to November. Ysbryd founder Brian Kwek wrote, “Crueler still, that we should find out with such short notice that Hollow Knight: Silksong will launch just one day after our planned release for Demonschool.”
Developer Panik Arcade had planned to release the roguelike horror slot machine game Cloverpit on Sept. 3, and used an all-caps Steam announcement to explain the change: “WE HAVE TO DELAY CLOVERPIT A BIT (SILKSONG lol)!” That revised date became Sept. 26, which later put it near Hades 2’s launch window.
More details about Cloverpit’s original announcement are available on this Steam news post.
Hades 2’s short notice and its effects
Supergiant’s Hades 2 came out of early access conversation with a tight announcement-to-launch window: the developer revealed the 1.0 date only about two weeks before the Sept. 25 release. Because Hades 2 had been in early access since May 2024, some of the sheer novelty was different compared to Silksong, but the final 1.0 launch still generated notable hype.
Case studies: Cloverpit, Baby Steps, Sworn, The Rogue Prince of Persia
Cloverpit
After delaying to avoid Silksong, Cloverpit’s new Sept. 26 date put it directly between Silksong and Hades 2. Publisher Future Friends Games’ Laura Topakian said, “We’re incredibly excited for Hades 2’s full launch (the hype is absolutely deserved!) but we never considered moving Cloverpit again.” She also said, “If we keep delaying to avoid competition, we might never launch.”
Baby Steps
Devolver Digital and the Baby Steps team delayed the comedic walking simulator out of the Silksong window. Devolver released a trailer-style announcement on Aug. 26 featuring the game’s protagonist interacting with a statue of Hornet, and set the release for Sept. 23, which sits only a couple of days before Hades 2.
Sworn
Co-op roguelike Sworn, in early access earlier in the year, originally planned a 1.0 launch on Sept. 25 — the same day as Hades 2. Publisher Team17 moved its date up slightly to Sept. 23. Claire Sharkey, head of PR at Team17, said, “We opted to keep our September launch because we promised our players we’d release in this window.” She added, “We recognise that releasing in proximity to Hades 2 is going to be a challenge.”
The Rogue Prince of Persia
Ubisoft and Evil Empire shifted their early access plans around Hades 2’s early attention. Evil Empire commented at the time: “Seeing as everyone and their mum is playing [Hades 2] (including our entire team… and their mums), we have decided to let people have their fun with it before we release The Rogue Prince of Persia.”
The Rogue Prince of Persia shadow-dropped in 1.0 shortly before Silksong’s date announcement. It has received generally positive reviews on Metacritic, and is included in Game Pass and PlayStation Plus Extra libraries. However, Steam player numbers have been modest: SteamDB shows an all-time concurrent peak of 849 and a recent 24-hour peak of 70 players.
Steam player charts for the title are viewable on SteamDB.
Bigger picture: indie calendars and competing launches
Indie publishers and developers face a crowded release calendar for the rest of the year. While large AAA launches like Grand Theft Auto 6 (now dated for May 2026) have prompted planning shifts among major publishers in the past, the Silksong — then Hades 2 — sequence is a current example of how a few high-profile indie events can ripple across smaller teams.
In short: several indies delayed to avoid Silksong, and some of those games ended up near Hades 2 anyway. Developers and publishers are balancing public promises, community expectations, and the very real risk of launching beside a major, hyped release.
