Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo • Hacker News Board

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#41

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 4:58 PM UTC

jsheard wrote: post #8

12_throw_away wrote: post #3

I believe the Deltarune release this year also crashed a bunch of storefronts. Kind of interesting to compare the sales from these tiny indie developers vs, say, anything that Microsoft's mega game studios have touched in the last few years.

I think that's mainly down to those mega-huge games usually having preorders, and small indie game usually not, for whatever reason. Neither Deltarune or Silksong could be preordered so everyone was zerg rushing the stores at the same time.

Especially with the ballooning size of installs, pre-ordering and pre-loading a 100GB+ game could be the difference between playing same day vs the next.

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#42

Post by egeres » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 4:59 PM UTC

I'm probably being naive, but I feel surprised that in 2025, a platform like Steam (which has existed for well over 2 decades and has around 70M DAU) is having this type of issues. I don't want to downplay the complex engineering behind scale and massive surges of demand, but it's not like it's their first rodeo. What seems to be blocking users from getting the game is accepting payments, nothing computationally complex per se IMO

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#43

Post by medwards666 » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 4:59 PM UTC

dan353hehe wrote: post #33

Well, there goes my week. I have a hard time getting into games anymore, but hollow knight was one that actually kept my attention enough to finish. Super great game!

Then, if you haven't already tried it, I can heartily recommend Nine Sols as well. Not _quite_ up there with HK, but not too far behind ...

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#44

Post by ahartmetz » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 4:59 PM UTC

iammjm wrote: post #39

Whats responsible for its secret? looks like an indie platformer game amongst many, many others. I think theres been about 20k games released on steam in 2024. How does it manage to stand out amongst other games?

Not sure, really. Hollow Knight is a nice game, but it didn't blow me away. The atmosphere is very nice, but the main storyline is IMO overwrought and kind of random. The side stories and most characters are also nice. The mechanics are, I guess, above average as well.

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#45

Post by cassiogo » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 5:01 PM UTC

i_c_b wrote: post #23

A few years ago, I was feeling dispirited about being middle-aged and had come around to the conclusion that, at least when playing games, my general dissatisfaction and "meh" response to the games I was playing was probably a function of my age rather than anything about the games themselves. I was enjoying some games to an extent, but I wasn't being really grabbed by anything, and I was having a hard time sticking…

Felt a similar way when playing Expedition 33 earlier this year. Such a great game.

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#46

Post by greenpizza13 » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 5:02 PM UTC

iammjm wrote: post #39

Whats responsible for its secret? looks like an indie platformer game amongst many, many others. I think theres been about 20k games released on steam in 2024. How does it manage to stand out amongst other games?

It's the sequel to an indie darling widely viewed as among the best (or the best) metroidvanias. On top of that, the game has been in development for 6+ years, so long that the release has become a meme. See r/SilkSong. The hype for this is remarkable and people have been counting the hours since it was announced 2 weeks ago.

People trust Team Cherry to deliver a commensurate experience to Hollow Knight, which stands as many peoples' favorite games of all time.

This kind of hype comes rarely, and it's very specific to this specific game.

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#47

Post by mpartel » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 5:03 PM UTC

egeres wrote: post #42

I'm probably being naive, but I feel surprised that in 2025, a platform like Steam (which has existed for well over 2 decades and has around 70M DAU) is having this type of issues. I don't want to downplay the complex engineering behind scale and massive surges of demand, but it's not like it's their first rodeo. What seems to be blocking users from getting the game is accepting payments, nothing computationally comp…

Huge spikes over a short period of time are hard to deal with for anyone, and payment processors have their own infra whose scalability Steam can't necessarily control.

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#48

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 5:03 PM UTC

Zren wrote: post #27

Figs wrote: post #22

Had no issues getting it on GOG: https://www.gog.com/en/game/hollow_knight_silksong

Wait the original was only $15?! I got Hollow Knight in a Humble Bundle so I had no idea how cheap that amazing game was. No wonder Silksong is only $20. I saw the memes about the devs asking for $20 and assumed it was $20 more like $60=>$80 or something like that.

[deleted]

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#49

Post by medwards666 » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 5:04 PM UTC

Freak_NL wrote: post #6

Oh right! I was wondering why Steam wasn't loading the store properly. That hasn't happened in a while, has it?

Not since the last Steam sale (and every single Steam sale before it) ... really, Valve need to sort out their creaking server infrastructure for big events and launches. It's not like no-one could have predicted this ...

Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong causes server chaos on Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo

#50

Post by Bjartr » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 5:05 PM UTC

iammjm wrote: post #39

Whats responsible for its secret? looks like an indie platformer game amongst many, many others. I think theres been about 20k games released on steam in 2024. How does it manage to stand out amongst other games?

What makes a meal stand out amongst others made with the same ingredients? Game design is a thing that requires careful balance to produce an engaging and satisfying experience both moment to moment and over course of the whole game. Think how difficult it is to make a truly great movie, only now put the camera in the hands of any random person for it's duration and keep it great.

Many games do well at a few aspects, but few hit it out of the park across the board.

Hollow Knight managed something pretty close to that. It's a creative feat that required not only excellence in storytelling, art, music, and interaction design, asking others, but also excellence in blending then together to make something that is more than the sum of its parts.

The studio that did that is releasing a new game in the same vein and people want more of that established track record of excellence.