Hollow Knight: Silksong Dev Insists ‘The Game Is Real, Progressing, and Will Release’ as Fans Obsess Over a Picture of Chocolate Cake

Hollow Knight fans have been through the wringer recently, with cryptic X/Twitter activity from one developer sparking rampant speculation that the hotly anticipated follow-up Hollow Knight: Silksong will finally re-emerge at Nintendo’s Switch 2 Direct in April — and potentially even release on Nintendo’s next-gen console as a timed launch exclusive.

It all started when supersleuths on the Hollow Knight subreddit noticed that on January 15, co-director of Team Cherry William Pellen had changed his Twitter/X profile picture to a picture of a chocolate cake. Alongside this, Pellen tweeted: “something big is coming. keep your eyes closed tomorrow.”

At the time, Nintendo’s Switch 2 reveal was rumored for January 16, and so it proved — that was the day Nintendo finally announced the Switch 2. Had Pellen really asked followers to keep an eye out for the Switch 2 reveal? If so, why?

Fans then reverse-searched the picture of the cake, leading them to a recipe for Brooklyn Blackout Cake on cooking website Bon Appétit. The date the recipe was published: April 2, 2024. The date of the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct is April 2, 2025.

Fans also wondered what Pellen’s new X/Twitter handle, @everydruidwaswr, meant, if anything. Redditor Representative-True speculated that the “wr” in “everydruidwaswr” was the start of a word, perhaps “wrong,” or perhaps stands for “was wrong,” and pointed to the Druid of the Moss Temple Silksong NPC as evidence of… something.

Pellen had a new X/Twitter name to go along with the new handle and profile picture: “little bomey.” Fans noticed Little Boomey is a wine from Southern Australia, where Team Cherry is based, but the spelling is different. The upshot of all this was that some fans thought Pellen had kicked off a Silksong alternate reality game (ARG), but over the weekend comments appeared to pour cold water on this theory.

First, Hollow Knight YouTuber fireb0rn tweeted to say Team Cherry marketing and publishing chief Matthew ‘Leth’ Griffin had got in touch “to confirm there was no Silksong ARG and that the changes to William’s account and the tweet were a nothingburger. Apologies to have misled everyone. The cake was a lie.”

And in a post on the Hollow Knight Discord, Griffin backed this up, saying: “It wasn’t [an ARG]. But it was still some impressive sleuthing skills by the fans… like ya’ll are WAY beyond those 2020 riddles now.”

Griffin himself followed up to respond to one fan who wondered if Team Cherry had given up on Hollow Knight: Silksong. “Yes the game is real, progressing and will release,” Griffin tweeted.

This has done little to calm all the speculation, as you can perhaps imagine. And at the time of this article’s publication, Pellen’s tweet remains online. Pellen himself has yet to explain whatever his X/Twitter activity is all about, either.

It’s worth remembering that when Hollow Knight: Silksong was announced, Team Cherry confirmed the launch platforms as Windows, Mac, Linux, and Nintendo Switch. But that was six years ago. We have a few months to find out what this all means, but in the meantime, check out everything announced at Nintendo’s Switch 2 reveal.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.