Following seven years of development on Hollow Knight: Silksong, Team Cherry is considering stepping away from the Hollow Knight universe entirely for their next project. In an interview with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, co-founders Ari Gibson and William Pellen confirmed plans for Silksong DLC but revealed they are seriously contemplating making a brand-new game next. Stating they are driven not just by creativity, but a surprisingly morbid time constraint: their own mortality and lives.
"The only time concern really is - and we’ve talked about this before - death," Gibson remarked, candidly reflecting on how long game development can take. "It’s not that far off if you spend seven years per project... Apparently our timeframe still allows us to fit a few more in."
While the duo hasn’t ruled out Hollow Knight 3, their next game could be something entirely original. However, Gibson reassured fans that even if they move away from Hollow Knight, their signature elements in their video games will remain: large worlds, oddball characters, and challenging boss battles that fans love and enjoy.
The candid comments from Team Cherry echo a broader theme among aging game developers. Bethesda’s Todd Howard previously admitted The Elder Scrolls VI may be his last in the series, citing age and long dev cycles. Similarly, Hideo Kojima reflected on his own mortality after becoming seriously ill during the COVID-19 pandemic. He even went as far as putting his game ideas on a USB stick like a digital will for others to use and create with.
In all cases, the takeaway is the same: time is finite, and long development cycles can drastically limit the number of games even the most passionate creators can make in a lifetime.
Though the focus may shift, Gibson and Pellen emphasized that Hollow Knight isn’t gone for good. "We do have ideas around what forms those [future Hollow Knight games] would take," Gibson noted. "But we also don’t want to be exclusively people that make Hollow Knight."
So while Hollow Knight 3 isn’t guaranteed to be next, it’s far from off the table. For now, Team Cherry is weighing the opportunity to broaden its creative portfolio before the ticking clock of life makes those decisions for them. We will have to wait and see what they decide and do.
What are your thoughts on Gibson and Pellens comments? Do you agree with them? Would you try a new game from Team Cherry? Let us know if you played Silksong in the comments below! As always, stay tuned to Gamefragger.com for more video game news!
Discover a vast, haunted kingdom in Hollow Knight: Silksong! Explore, fight and survive as you ascend to the peak of a land ruled by silk and song.