After an exceptionally long wait, Hollow Knight: Silksong is out now on the Switch and Switch 2, and perhaps one of the most pleasantly surprising aspects of its launch is its price.
You’re looking at $19.99 / £16.75 / €19.99 / ¥2300 for the new release which, given the sheer length of its development and presumptions around its runtime, seems very reasonable indeed. Some folks, however, think that Team Cherry has legitimately priced the game too low, and therefore may be distorting players’ expectations regarding what a $20 game should look like (thanks, Eurogamer).
First up is BastiArtGames, the solo-developer of Lone Fungus, who took to X and asked what its sequel, Lone Fungus: Melody of Spores, should be priced at now that Silksong has launched. The game was originally targeting a price of $20, which the developer had considered fair, but is now questioning whether it should be lowered to undercut Silksong.
Similarly, RJ Lake, who is directing the upcoming rhythm game Unbeatable, posted a thread stating that while he is pleased that Silksong is so cheap, it could have severe ramifications on how players perceive the value of games, stating that “‘The Gamer’ is a creature very bad at knowing why things cost what they do”.
Developer Toukana, who worked on Dorfromantik and is now about to release Star Birds, told Eurogamer that the latter’s price has also been affected following the game’s short delay from 4th September to 10th September:
“Yes, Silksong’s price has influenced our decision. We’re trying not to compete too directly with Silksong, both in terms of release date and pricing. Of course, these are two very different games with potentially different player bases, but there’s definitely some overlap. That makes things tricky, especially since Star Birds is a joint project between two studios, together employing more people than Team Cherry.”
It’s an interesting situation, to be sure, but we also think a significant jump in price from the original Hollow Knight to Hollow Knight: Silksong would have almost certainly ruffled a few feathers. Given the anticipation around the game along with how few people were involved in its development, we reckon Team Cherry probably made the correct decision regarding price.
