Silksong physical may hint at sea of sorrow release window

Hollow Knight: Silksong is finally getting its long-awaited physical release later this year, as Fanmar confirmed earlier this week. It will come with a physical disc, a manual, and a cool fold-out map that shows you the entire world of the game. It's another great way to support Team Cherry, but some fans think the announcement gave us some details on the Sea of Sorrows.

Silksong's fans consider its release window to be a sea of physical grief

Hornet squaring off against Reed and Chorister in Hollow Knight: Silksong.

If you visit the Fangamer website and pre-order page for Hollow Knight: Silksong, you will be able to find a sentence that is whipping fans into a frenzy at the moment. It reads: “The Sea of Sorrows DLC is not included in the game media but will be available to download for free.”

Now, if you're a glass-half-full Silksong fan, you'll see this as an acknowledgment that Sea of Sorrow will be out and playable when the game's physical release drops on October 16th, but because of the build and all that jazz, the DLC won't be on disc. If you're an optimist, this is basically an announcement telling you that Ocean of Sorrows will be released in the next five months.

If you're a glass-half-empty Silksong fan, you'll read this more as a warning to potential customers that the DLC won't be on disc, and that the phrase “will be available for free download” is letting fans know that it's free, and can be downloaded at launch, whether that's before or after the physical release.

To me, it's a bit strange. I'm pretty sure that Sea of Sorrows will launch within the next five months, because it would be very strange for Team Cherry to spend an entire year on one DLC, when they usually only spend a few months on it. Hollow Knight's first DLC was released just 6 months after the base game launched, and we're almost done with that time for Silksong.

I think it's possible we'll hear something about Sea of Sorrows next month, maybe at Summer Game Fest, and then a release a few weeks later, like what happened with the base game. It would be weird to have a physical launch and not include an ocean of misery if it was ready, so my money is on July or August.