What do Hollow Knight Silksong and Grand Theft Auto VI have in common? Enough popularity to make other studios delay their games to get out of the way, and hopefully not be drowned out by the hype of either. Yesterday, Team Cherry finally announced a release date for Silksong, which will launch on September 4, 2025. Today, developers Aeternum Game Studios and Panik Arcade delayed their games to get the hell out of its way.
Both studios cite Hollow Knight Silksong's release date as a reason for their delay, though in fairness the situations for Aeternum and Panik are not exactly one-to-one. In the case of Panik Arcade and its slot machine roguelike CloverPit, that takes inspiration from Balatro and Buckshot Roulette, is only being delayed by a few weeks, from its initial September 3 release date to September 26.
The studio announced the delay with a post on X (formerly Twitter), and added in a press release, "We like a gamble, but this one is too risky lol. We want to give ourselves and our fans some time to enjoy Silksong, so we’re launching a few weeks later and will use the time to polish CloverPit even further."
At least in CloverPit's case, Panik Arcade is just trying to ensure that it can grab some attention when it launches, especially since it's a very different game compared to Silksong, and isn't trying to stand its ground as a 2D Metroidvania.
Which is the problem that Aeternum Game Studios is dealing with. Its upcoming game, Aeterna Lucis, is a sequel to 2021's Aeterna Noctis and a 2D Metroidvania.
"Our initial plan was to launch it this September," Aeternum Game Studios writes in a statement on X (formerly Twitter). "But after the announcement of Silksong, we are fully aware that our game wouldn't have the visibility it deserves. Competing with a phenomenon of that scale would not only be unfair to our team's effort, but also to you, the community, who expect to experience this adventure under the best possible conditions."
Now, Aeterna Lucis won't arrive until sometime in 2026. Though Aeternum Game Studios isn't just pinning the blame on Hollow Knight Silksong. It needs more than just a few weeks of delay time because it doesn't have "all the necessary development kits to ensure a simultaneous release on all next-generation platforms."
"To be transparent, we believe the best decision for everyone is to step back and bring you Aeterna Lucis at the right time. That's why we've made the difficult but necessary choice to delay the release to 2026."
The studio doesn't specify which of the next-generation platforms it is struggling to obtain development kits for, but the obvious guess is the Nintendo Switch 2, as we've seen several reports about smaller studios having issues getting dev kits from Nintendo, with only the larger studios and publishers getting priority.
Aeternum Game Studios goes on to thank Team Cherry, crediting the studio and Hollow Knight as a key reason for 2D Metroidvania games being as popular as they are in the modern gaming landscape. The studio also acknowledges Team Cherry's work as a key inspiration for Aeterna Noctis and Aeterna Lucis.
At least in the case of Grand Theft Auto VI's release date, studios have more time to plan to get out of Rockstar and Take-Two's path, since you can bet that GTA VI will hog every bit of the videogame industry's attention when it arrives in May 2026.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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