Attractive Hollow Knight: Silksong price is affecting the cost of other indie games

The abrupt announcement of the Hollow Knight: Silksong release date altered the launch plans of competing Metroidvania games. Now, the appealing $19.99/€19.99 Silksong price has prompted some developers to reconsider pricing decisions. As reported by Eurogamer, companies worry that Team Cherry has set unrealistic expectations for other indie games.

Toukana Interactive, the developer of the space base building Star Birds, originally set a launch date of September 4th. It will now debut on September 10th to avoid the Silksong hysteria. The studio told Eurogamer that it had also adjusted the game’s yet-to-be-announced price. Still, Toukana had to consider development costs, since its team was larger than Team Cherry’s workforce.

Other developers have harsher reactions to the lower-than-anticipated Silksong price. The director of the rhythm adventure title, Unbeatable, shared his concerns on social media. RJ Lake posted, “Silksong honestly should cost 40 bucks and I'm not even joking”. He went on to explain that gamers may now expect all indie games offering a similar value to ask $20.

Not all studios view Hollow Knight: Silksong as a trendsetter. Gareth Damian Martin, the creator of Citizen Sleeper and Citizen Sleeper 2, thinks no single title can upend the economics of the industry. As popular as Team Cherry’s Metroidvania game is, players will purchase other titles at various price points.

Silksong is also a product of unique circumstances among indie games. The 2017 Hollow Knight achieved incredible support and sales numbers, which aided Team Cherry’s development of a sequel. With a ravenous appetite for Silksong, the small team can likely sell more than enough copies to sustain themselves, even at $20. After servers crashed early on the Silksong release date, its peak Steam player count stands at over 562,000.