Silksong Launch Prompts Fans to Roast 2015 Reddit Doubters Who Dismissed Hollow Knight as Just Another Platformer
Fans of Hollow Knight: Silksong are sharing a decade-old Reddit post that doubted the original Hollow Knight back in 2015, after Silksong’s big launch drew huge crowds and briefly disrupted storefronts. The old thread showed early skepticism about the game, and now players are pointing to it as a reminder of how perceptions can change over time.
What happened in 2015
In 2015 a Reddit user posted an early trailer for what would become Hollow Knight, saying, “Last year my best friend quit his full time job to chase his dream and make a fully fledged video game.” That initial thread appeared on r/gaming and later reached r/all.
According to a discussion about Reddit’s reach, the post had a potential audience of more than 120 million people when it hit r/all, which helped bring attention to the project early on.
Why people were skeptical
Once the trailer reached a broader audience, the thread picked up negative and doubtful comments. For example, one highly-upvoted reply said, “I watched the trailer and still felt like it was yet another side scroller puzzle platformer combat game with rpg elements that I’ve seen numerous times now,” and later asked, “What am I supposed to be excited about?”
Other users echoed concerns about market saturation, with comments like, “I’m sure its a fine game, but the market is currently saturated with side-scrolling platformers so I feel his game may not do as good as he hopes,” and “It looks like any other platform game.”
At the time, Steam recorded slightly more than 2,800 releases in 2015, and developers were discussing an indiepocalypse on r/gamedev. As one developer wrote then, “Making a good game isn’t even enough anymore.”
Ten years later
Hollow Knight shipped in 2017 and later became an influential indie success. In 2025, when Silksong launched, fans pointed back to that 2015 thread and reposted the same framing—this time with a wink.
The new post echoed the original wording: “Ten years my best friend quit his full time job to chase his dream and make a fully fledged video game,” and linked to the new trailer. You can view the 2025 post on r/gaming.
On that reposted thread, the top reply read, “Honestly, with all the side scrolling platformers out there, I’m not sure if your friend’s game is going to take off,” and then added, “But I wish him luck.”
