An enigmatic three-member game developing team from Adelaide has created chaos on global online gaming platforms.
Steam and other major storefronts including Nintendo’s eShop, PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store crashed on Friday, unable to cope with the demand for Hollow Knight: Silksong, the long-awaited sequel to the critically acclaimed 2017 indie hit Hollow Knight.
The game’s release triggered widespread outages, with thousands of users reporting issues trying to buy the game in the first few hours of its release. Many were unable to complete purchases, with error messages persisting for almost three hours after the launch.
The surge in demand was reflected on the troubleshooting platform Downdetector, where user reports spiked to 3,750 shortly after launch before gradually tapering off.
Social media lit up with complaints and screenshots of error codes as frustrated gamers vented about the lack of a preorder option. One user called the situation “ridiculous”, while others described it as “stupid” that no measures had been taken to prevent the bottleneck.
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Humble Bundle, another digital retailer, briefly displayed a message stating the game was unavailable due to overwhelming traffic – a notice that was later removed once the issue was resolved.
Despite the technical hiccups, within 30 minutes of going live Steam reported more than 100,000 active players, suggesting many had managed to secure their copies.
Hollow Knight was developed by Ari Gibson, William Pellen and Jack Vine with music by Christopher Larkin, who comprise the Adelaide-based indie studio Team Cherry. The game, which is set in a richly imagined world of insect warriors, has built a devoted following since its 2017 release and has reportedly sold more than 15m copies worldwide.
A screenshot from Hollow Knight: Silksong. Illustration: Team Cherry
The New York Times recently hailed the original Hollow Knight as “a modern Metroidvania classic”, complete with “charming and detailed hand-drawn animations, difficult boss battles and twisting, secret-filled corridors”.
The original gained a cult following largely through word of mouth. But the anticipation for the sequel – which shifts focus to Hornet, a sword-wielding princess who appeared as a supporting character in the original game – was such that at least seven other new games have delayed their launch in the past two weeks to avoid a clash, including the walking sim Baby Steps and the tactical role-playing game Demonschool, the New York Times reported.
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The game’s development was independently funded, but a delighted South Australian Film Corporation was quick to share in Team Cherry’s global triumph of Friday, posting on LinkedIn: “This small-but-mighty team of developers from Adelaide is a true world-leading talent that exemplifies the creative excellence coming out of South Australia”.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Gibson said the seven-year development period for Silksong was of the team’s own choosing to make the game they wanted to make.
“We’re a small team, and games take a lot of time,” he said. “There wasn’t any big controversial moment behind it.”
In an earlier interview with the ABC, Pellen attributed the enduring popularity of the original Hollow Knight to the fact it was inspired by older-style games but without looking dated.
“The satisfying thing with Hollow Knight was that we were making something that was to our tastes, and that meant that we were making things that were slightly different,” Pellen told the ABC. “Hopefully Silksong can achieve that too.”
