{"id":10680,"date":"2025-09-05T10:34:56","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nextlevelnews.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/09\/05\/i-guess-silksong-is-just-that-respected-after-hollow-knight-silksong-was-cracked-at-launch-pirates-are-urging-each-other-to-buy-instead-and-some-cant-believe-what-theyre-seeing\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T10:34:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:34:56","slug":"i-guess-silksong-is-just-that-respected-after-hollow-knight-silksong-was-cracked-at-launch-pirates-are-urging-each-other-to-buy-instead-and-some-cant-believe-what-theyre-seeing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextlevelnews.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/09\/05\/i-guess-silksong-is-just-that-respected-after-hollow-knight-silksong-was-cracked-at-launch-pirates-are-urging-each-other-to-buy-instead-and-some-cant-believe-what-theyre-seeing\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I Guess Silksong Is Just That Respected’: After Hollow Knight: Silksong Was Cracked at Launch, Pirates Are Urging Each Other to Buy Instead \u2014 and Some Can’t Believe What They’re Seeing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/section>\n

The splash damage caused by Hollow Knight: Silksong<\/a>\u2019s massive launch impact has spread beyond huge Steam concurrents and struggling storefronts to the parts of the internet where video game pirates hang out \u2014 and there something interesting is happening: the pirates are urging each other to buy the game instead of downloading the cracked version.<\/p>\n

Team Cherry\u2019s hotly anticipated Hollow Knight sequel finally came out on September 4, 2025 priced $20, six years after it was announced, and instantly crashed storefronts including Steam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the storefronts recovered, player numbers swelled to the point where Silksong hit an incredible launch day peak of 535,213 concurrent players on Steam, enough to make it the 18th most-played game ever on Valve\u2019s platform. The true player count across all platforms will be much higher.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

Silksong also launched DRM-free on GOG, so it was no surprise to see a cracked version available to download in the hours after launch. What was a surprise was the response from some veteran video game pirates, who urged their peers to support Team Cherry and buy the game instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst game I’ve bought day of release in a decade probably,\u201d said pyrokzg on the piracy subreddit<\/a> in response to a thread upvoted 7,000 times. \u201cNot even the decade for me. It’s the very first,\u201d added Vamsi-Thopu.<\/p>\n

So, why is this happening? Clearly, there is a huge amount of goodwill from across the internet directed at Team Cherry, the small indie developer that saw the original Hollow Knight blow up to such an extent that it was able to take its merry time with this ambitious sequel.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s also a feeling that Team Cherry does things the right way. For a start, there\u2019s a DRM-free version available at launch, but the Australian studio was also keen to honor the promises it made with its original Hollow Knight Kickstarter all those years ago. There\u2019s even a free upgrade for the Nintendo Switch 2 version. In short, Team Cherry are the good guys, and the feeling is they deserve their success.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

\u201cIt’s a 3-4 person team that has done right by their fans at every turn,\u201d said No-Shape6053, also on the piracy subreddit. \u201cMaking sure the PC release is DRM free. Making sure all original backers of Hollow Knight get Silksong free on their choice of platform. This is a time where if we can afford to support them, we should.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSupport the devs if you can, they deserve it,\u201d added iTzNowbie. There\u2019s plenty more where that came from, too. \u201cThe only game I will feel bad if I ever pirated it,\u201d said beastfire24. \u201cHey the game is pretty cheap. This one, we should not pirate,\u201d said Sythrin.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, some have expressed surprise at the collective urge not to pirate Silksong, which itself prompted a discussion about why this is happening with Silksong but hasn\u2019t happened with similarly beloved indie games in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually people here claim that the title, price, or the indie status makes no difference to them, but I guess that Silksong is just that respected,\u201d offered MixaLv.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m surprised too,\u201d added ALIIERTx. \u201cMany times people are like, \u2018I don\u2019t care if I pirate from indie developer,\u2019 but on this one everyone is pretty defensive against piracy. I\u2019m fascinated.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

Responses to this reinforce the Team Cherry angle. “Team Cherry has built themselves an amazing reputation,” suggested Someone_Existing_1. “Because they\u2019re only a three-person studio, they can keep their games super cheap due to far less employees needing pay. Also they aren\u2019t greedy f***s like most companies, so their DLCs are all free and there\u2019s no microtransactions or online-only bulls**t.”<\/p>\n

Be sure to check out IGN’s Silksong coverage, which includes the story of the superfan behind the YouTube Channel Daily Silksong News, who can finally rest after an incredible 1,693 days of videos<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Starting out Silksong? Here’s how to unlock and use the map<\/a>, how to get Rosary Beads<\/a>, the Achievements and Trophies list<\/a>, and our ever expanding Silksong Interactive Map<\/a>. Also, you may need the Bell Beast boss fight guide<\/a>. It’s a hard one!<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

Be sure to stay up-to-date with all the latest from IGN by clicking <\/em>here<\/em><\/u><\/a> and setting IGN as a preferred source in Google.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The splash damage caused by Hollow Knight: Silksong\u2019s massive launch impact has spread beyond huge Steam concurrents and struggling storefronts to the parts of the internet where video game pirates hang out \u2014 and there something interesting is happening: the pirates are urging each other to buy the game instead of downloading the cracked version. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n'I Guess Silksong Is Just That Respected': After Hollow Knight: Silksong Was Cracked at Launch, Pirates Are Urging Each Other to Buy Instead \u2014 and Some Can't Believe What They're Seeing - Next Level News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stay on top of the gaming world with Next Level News. 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