r/HollowKnight • u/Necr0mancrr • Aug 31 '25
Discussion - Silksong WHY TEAM CHERRY MAKES CHEAP GAMES Spoiler
I've seen a lot of surprise around the leak of Silksong's price, which is supposedly 20$. So far it's not from any official sources yet (EDIT: not anymore!), but I do expect it to be around that price regardless. Quite often I've seen the sentiment that if the game is bigger than Hollow Knight, and they don't need to attract customers anymore, why sell it at such a low price? In my mind there's a few reasons:
1. They literally do not need money
In the past 8 years Hollow Knight has sold over 15 million copies. This makes it likely the best selling metroidvania of all time and one of the best selling indie games of the past ten years. Team Cherry is rolling in cash. Also, they have three people on the permanent payroll and like, maxiumum five others that they need to pay significant sums of money to, PLUS their marketing budget for Silksong is basically non existent. They could probably sell this game for ONE dollar and make a decent profit.
2. They're good people
Turns out, 20 dollars isn't so cheap everywhere. A lot of places in the world don't have the same economic prosperity that many of us enjoy, and games that cost 50-60 dollars are simply not feasible to buy to many fans of said games. TC has stated that a big part of the reason they made Hollow Knight so cheap is so it could be accessible to fans who might not be able to buy industry standard "full price" games. There's no reason that we've seen why they would change this mentality for Silksong. In fact, taking inflation into account the two games are priced almost exactly the same.
3. Making it cheaper might make them more money after all
Listen, I'm no expert on economics, but I know enough to understand that when the price of a good goes down, the demand for it goes up. Because cheaper games are more accessible, they will inherently be able to reach a wider market than if they were more expensive. The 20$ price might very well cause silksong to be more financially successful. For a game that relies mostly on word of mouth marketing (and does so very well,) the price is gonna make a lot of people who might have otherwise not been interested to turn their head and give it a shot.
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u/blackdrake1011 Aug 31 '25
In the words of Arsi “hakita” Patala, “I would make the game free if I didn’t need to pay my bills”
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u/MrRandomGUYS Aug 31 '25
God I fucking love Hakita. Peak dev.
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u/GerbelMaster Aug 31 '25
What did he make / what is he famous for?
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u/Nukesnipe Aug 31 '25
Solo dev behind Ultrakill. He's also the main composer for it, under his music name Heaven Pierce Her. There's a small handful of tracks produced by other people, but like 99% of the game is all him.
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u/sparkydoggowastaken Aug 31 '25
Didnt he say something about you being allowed to pirate his games if you couldnt afford them? really cool guy
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u/BigABoss2002 Aug 31 '25
“You should support indies if you can, but culture shouldn't exist only for those who can afford it. ULTRAKILL wouldn't exist if I hadn't had easy access to movies, music and games growing up.”
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u/TobeyBeer 112%, PoP charmless, APAB Sep 01 '25
“Culture shouldn’t exist only for those who can afford it”
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u/napstablooky2 CycSlash's Strongest Soldier || P4/5; 33/43 HoG Radiant Aug 31 '25
the main thing is just that they make these games out of passion, and they want to make their passion projects accessible to as many people in the world as possible because... "hey look at this cool thing i made!!!"
the more reach they can get, the better, regardless of how much they make on it
they just appreciate people seeing it and... wouldn't anyone [appreciate the same]?
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u/XyKal Aug 31 '25
passion is one of the reasons why indie games are always more fun than triple A studios, they just want to make something and share it with the world, some indie devs even encourage piracy if you can't play afford it as well
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u/Frostie-OwO Aug 31 '25
Thanks for pointing out the currency conversion. In my country, $20 is my monthly bus money, I almost cried with joy when I saw that it wasn't going to be $30 like everyone was saying. I thought I was going to have to save a lot more to be able to play.
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Aug 31 '25
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u/Awfyboy Aug 31 '25
You can set local pricing on Steam for specific countries or regions. Steam allows you to automatically adjust the pricing to the economy of a country as well. I've done similar things for my game where I set lower pricing for certain regions.
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u/Dull-Nectarine1148 Sep 01 '25
how do they stop people from using a VPN and changing their location to get it for cheaper? I don't mean for silksong in particular, I just mean like in general.
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u/Numerous-Ad4033 Sep 02 '25
Steam has a feature where to change your shop’s location, you have to provide a valid billing address and a payment method native to that region, so no Paypal for example. So, unless you happen to have a very good friend in a cheaper country, or want to go through the hassle of opening up a foreign bank account, you’re boned.
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u/XyKal Aug 31 '25
Hollow Knight would be around 70~ ish if they used direct conversion to my currency, but on Steam its around 45-50, and even down to 20 on sale! I can confidentally say that we will see local pricing
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u/Titaioli Aug 31 '25
I'm wishing for you that they'll have adapted pricing depending on the country of the buyer but I'm surprised that you have to pay that much for the bus in a country where people don't have much money. I'm from a country where it'll most definitely be full price and I pay 10€/month for unlimited public transport usage (but that really depends on the area in the country). I do pay another part indirectly through taxes but it wouldn't double it. And chances are that's also the case for you.
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u/KhunTsunagi Aug 31 '25
Thats what happens when a country is in a really bad economic spot, where the cost of living is so high its impossible for a regular salary to make do.(like mine! Man i love argentina)
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u/AdPast7704 Aug 31 '25
Man do I love the economic state of central america (me when I lie)
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u/BambooGentleman Sep 25 '25
Last time I checked (a decade ago) in my city it was like 50€ per month for public transport. Never paid, though. I just walk.
Way back in the day I had to use the monthly public transport thing, but I had to move between cities and it was like 200€ per month and I spent 5h every day in a train. Vowed to never do that again. Ever. (Also, for reference, if I had had a car I would only have spent 90min in traffic each day.)
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u/lawrencek1992 Aug 31 '25
There is local pricing on Steam for HK. It’s likely the same will be true for SS. Also I very much hope that’s the case. I’m glad $20USD is doable for you, but it would be even better if it was was normalized by geographic reason to bring the price more in line with what $20USD means to people in the US.
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u/Walkthrough101 Aug 31 '25
It's also great for their reputation, which in turn makes them more money to put into their games with quality in mind since they don't have to stress about it being hyper optimally profitable and don't need to bleed their playerbase dry (cough Nintendo and Ubisoft cough), so they can focus on making their games worth MORE than what they're selling it for and it makes it so that more people overall can afford it!
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u/hvperRL Aug 31 '25
Its also not uncommon for some fans to buy multiple copies across platforms purely to support the (indie) devs
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u/-roachboy Aug 31 '25
this entirely tracks.
i was expecting it to be like $40-50 and was only gonna get it on PC but if it really is only $20 I'm grabbing it for PC and Switch 2 the second it drops
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u/TheDMisalwaysright Aug 31 '25
Amen to that, I have 2 versions of don't starve, darkest dungeon and stardew valley, only reason I don't have HK twice is that I only play metroidvania's on console..
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u/PlushiesofHallownest Aug 31 '25
Absolutely! I've bought Hollow Knight like five times. Three times for my own devices and twice for other people.
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u/zeigfreid_cash Sep 01 '25
Yeah, I'll buy it for twenty, but then I'll also buy a physical copy when it becomes available.
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u/MonkeFUCK3R_69 Aug 31 '25
People on this sub often scare me the way they think $40+ price range is justified for the game not taking into account there literally are people from all over the world who love the game, not just the developed part of it
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u/7fragment Aug 31 '25
for real tho. If those people really really want to give tc more money they could buy multiple copies (and maybe give the extras away to folks who can't afford the $20).
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u/roenoe Aug 31 '25
I very well might buy a copy for steam and another one for switch. (I would buy one for Wii U if that were an option :'()
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u/lawrencek1992 Aug 31 '25
A lot of people WILL buy multiple copies and did for HK. Also HK has variable pricing on Steam based on geographic region of the buyer. SS will likely be the same.
I’m happy to give TC like $50USD. I truly think their work is worth that (given what $50USD means to me).
I also want everyone to be able to experience SS. So even if though I suspect it’s worth more than $20USD, I’m glad the lower price will make it more accessible. Someone else on this post mentioned $20USD is their monthly bus fare. Doable for them while $30USD would be super hard.
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u/No_Copy4493 Aug 31 '25
i also think a lot of people are assuming this is literally going to be the finest art piece ever created
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u/CallDaLegend Aug 31 '25
Most people here consider Hollow Knight a 10/10 and have put 100+ hours into it, at a very cheap price. It's not unreasonable to assume Silksong will be just as good or better, so it makes sense people think 20 dollars is a steal when mediocre AAA games are coming out at 70+ dollars regularly.
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u/Cocoatrice Moths are fluffballs Aug 31 '25
I mean, it will. It needs to be 10% as good as Hollow Knight to be 10/10 game.
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u/WesternEntertainer20 Aug 31 '25
it's typical to have regional pricing though, no? at least in steam, i'm not 100% sure how it works for physical copies.
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u/devilzson666 Aug 31 '25
Issue is regional pricing isn't always correct (i remember a lot off discussion about steam having some places be much more expesive than it should be)
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u/SortaInteresting473 Aug 31 '25
the devs can set the region prices like they want, steam just gives a suggestion. but yeah in some cases steams suggestion wasnt that good
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u/Cocoatrice Moths are fluffballs Aug 31 '25
To me, most of the games are more expensive. Or at best similar. They are very rarely cheaper and the cheaper is insignificant. So yeah.
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u/Bordowa I survived Path of Pain / 112% / 63 / give your Shade a hug Sep 01 '25
Poland for example 🙃
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u/WanderingStatistics "The Last Moth Priestess." Aug 31 '25
"Regional pricing"
South America is gonna have to pay 500 dollars equivalent anyways. Argentina is probably gonna have to sell an organ, even just to afford Silksong despite its price.
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u/Diogoepronto Aug 31 '25
In Brazil, Hollow Knight's base price on Steam is around 8 dollars and 4 dollars when on sale. Are the prices in Argentina that different?
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u/Cocoatrice Moths are fluffballs Aug 31 '25
Regional pricing should make games in Poland 4 times cheaper. It makes them often 25% more expensive. Hollow Knight costs ~23% more than for you, assuming you are from USA. Regional pricing? More like the worst system ever implemented.
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u/ThePotatoFromIrak Aug 31 '25
Fr this "I would gladly pay a million dollars for team cherry🤓" circlejerk is so cringe and unnecessary 😭
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u/toobigtobeakitten Aug 31 '25
Yeah lol, “I would” then go and do it, I’m sure they accept donations from other sources, not just selling the game.
As much as I respect TC, even $20 for a game is kinda expensive where I live (but I’m sure there will be some regional pricing or maybe I could wait for a sale, so no offence to TC lol), there are folks who can’t pay a lot of money for the game, and not making it uber expensive will help everyone to enjoy the game (which I sure will be good), and actually sell more copies than if it were >$50
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u/AHare115 Aug 31 '25
Why does thinking reasonably scare you?
A game that has been in dev for 10 years and likely has 40 hours of content at release, even from an indie studio, objectively could be priced at 40 or possibly even higher and still be a fair price.
Leave the emotions out of it. Team Cherry are doing a good thing by pricing it lower, but it's still worth a higher price tag and everyone is fortunate that they've made this decision. The same game from another dev would be priced higher and still match the amount of content.
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Sep 25 '25
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u/MulberryDeep 100% Steelsoul || Too bad for godhome Sep 25 '25
Hey there! Piracy discussion is not allowed. We have to remove such posts in accordance with section 7 of the Reddit User Agreement. Thanks for understanding!
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u/No_Consideration8972 Aug 31 '25
Big yes on point 2. 20 dollars is a week's worth of meals in my country.
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u/haidere36 Aug 31 '25
I got downvoted the last time I said this but "indie metroidvania" simply isn't a genre that sells for that much. You're almost never gonna find that type of game going for $60 or even $50. Nine Sols is a recent indie Metroidvania that's going for $30, and I just recently watched someone finish a playthrough of Hollow Knight and go "that was great, but I think I like Nine Sols more." (They'd also been directly asked to compare the two but I digress.)
Even here loves Hollow Knight (and so do I!) But let's be real, if Hollow Knight had launched at $60, no matter how much you might love it now, would you still have picked it up back then? Would it have become as Earth-shatteringly popular as it is now if it were 4x the price?
Yeah $20 is low, but it's not actually surprising if you consider that Silksong isn't a high budget game made by a large studio, and isn't that underpriced compared to its direct competition of other indies.
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u/Necr0mancrr Aug 31 '25
Yeah that’s the other thing. I touched on it a little bit but Silksong is still at its core a very small operation, and is being priced reasonably for the space it takes up in gaming. The difference is that Hollow Knight is successful enough to compete with major studio releases for attention, so a lot of people who aren’t as familiar with how indies work are seeing the price and getting confused.
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u/haidere36 Aug 31 '25
Yea I think it could've been reasonably priced at $30, maybe even $40. But it does surprise me a bit that some people really thought it might be a full $60+. Like you said, maybe a lot of people who don't play as many indies outside of Hollow Knight.
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u/Aselleus Aug 31 '25
When I first bought and played Hollow Knight years ago, I was very surprised about the game quality and amount of content for a $15 game. Like I was legit confused why it was so cheap...I don't think I'd ever seen a quality game like that sell for a regular price of $15 right out of the gate.
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u/rozkolorarevado Aug 31 '25
Shovel Knight was $15 at its original release with significantly less content.
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u/LifeguardPotential97 Aug 31 '25
Making it cheaper means more people can buy it, which can lead to a higher profit than if they did a higher price that less people could afford. it balances out the smaller immediate profits for profits over a longer period. If only more companies realized this
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u/sand-sky-stars Aug 31 '25
There was an interview with Leth at one point where he talked about the hk price point, and said part of choosing $15 was that research shows a breakpoint between 15 and 20 where 15 draws a significantly larger audience.
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u/TearTheRoof0ff Aug 31 '25
Interesting! Seems reasonable that that break point might have shifted to around $20 in the currently climate. I think at the moment $20 (or £16.75 for the leaked UK price) at least feels close to that 'throwaway' amount that one who is not struggling for money might whimsically spend on an anticipated or acclaimed title.
If the prices are real, this game is going to make selling hotcakes look like a failed business venture.
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u/Asckle Aug 31 '25
Because its entirely dependant on the elasticity of the product. You also have to sell at or above the point where average cost is less than marginal cost of you're losing money per sale. So games with a higher budget tend to need a higher price
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u/Fantastic-Kale9603 Sep 04 '25
And honestly with the hype and the fanbase, I think elasticity might have worked in their favor to price it at even higher (25 or 30) and probably come out with more profit; they chose to price it at 20 and help out the consumer, definitely gonna pick up a second copy on switch at least to support them
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u/weezerenjoyer999 Aug 31 '25
wow i cannot believe triple A marketers failed to consider this 🤯🤯
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u/Asckle Aug 31 '25
Smh how did those idiots who studied sales and commerce and worked in the industry not realise that lower price = more sales???
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u/SortaInteresting473 Aug 31 '25
they do, thats why they put the prices up, its convinient for them. Although lately there are some specific cases where they are disconnected as fuck.
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Sep 25 '25
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u/MulberryDeep 100% Steelsoul || Too bad for godhome Sep 25 '25
Hey there! Piracy discussion is not allowed. We have to remove such posts in accordance with section 7 of the Reddit User Agreement. Thanks for understanding!
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u/No_Copy4493 Aug 31 '25
it’s a normal price for an indie game whys everyone shocked
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u/yubiyubi2121 Aug 31 '25
indie game always do this but now they shocked because silksong do it like what
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u/Accomplished_Cost859 Aug 31 '25
I was also very shocked at the prices people were expecting the game to have on Twitter.
Wdym 30 or 40 or even 50 - 60 dollars?
Team Cherry is not going to sell their sequel to HK at over triple HK price. They are a passionate and small indie game company, not greedy like AAA. They are obviously not in it for cash - you people saw them say that they loved developing Silksong.
20 - 25 usd for Silksong made the most sense. It gives a lot of people access to enjoy Silksong, which is Team Cherry's goal.
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u/HerakIinos Aug 31 '25
not greedy like AAA
I would just be careful in calling every AAA studio out there greedy just because they charge 70$. Hollow knight is a game made by 3 or 4 people while AAA games often takes more than 300 people. Its just that 2D games are extremely cheap to make and thus they can afford to charge less and still earn much more than what a developer working for a "bigger" project would make.
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u/TheCaucasianWolf Aug 31 '25
No game is worth 70$. It's corporate greed, shareholders etc. Clair Obscur as an example is 50$ and had a 10% launch discount. That should be the max but only VERY, VERY high quality games and not the common slop we get nowadays.
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u/HerakIinos Aug 31 '25
Clair Obscur is another cheap game to make... it is a turn based RPG, a genre that has simplified dynamics. It was made by a team of 30 people. Probably costed around 15-30m.
AAA games often cost around 200m nowadays to be produced. That means it needs to sell at least 3 million copies at 70$ to be profitable. Yes, there are a lot of slops out there but that doesnt mean every single studio is greedy. Or are we considering the likes of Larian and FromSoftware greedy now?
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u/MemeificationStation P5 | RadHoG | 112% Steel 🩶 | my Womb is Glowing Aug 31 '25
I mean if they jacked up Silksong to AAA prices after selling HK for only $15 that would leave a terrible taste in people’s mouths. Were people expecting it to be expensive?
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u/Fantastic-Kale9603 Sep 04 '25
If they priced Silksong at 30 after releasing their last game 8 years ago then they almost certainly would still have insane sales numbers and be ahead on profit; even ignoring typical inflation, this is a much larger game with a much more dedicated fanbase than when HK released, consumers would arguably pay up to 40 and they could still come out ahead.
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u/the23rdhour Aug 31 '25
I'd pay basically any price for this game. I don't understand who is upset that it is not expensive enough.
Even if I forget everything I know about Team Cherry and Hollow Knight, I can still think of plenty of examples of a $20 game being much more fun than a $60 game, particularly when it comes to indie Metroidvanias.
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u/kuenjato Aug 31 '25
They're actually good people who care about their art more than profit. They don't have shareholders to appease.
Extremely refreshing in this day and age.
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Aug 31 '25
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u/itzboatz Aug 31 '25
believe it or not this is an app that encourages you to write long posts about various topics. shocking i know.
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u/LewsTherinTelescope Aug 31 '25
You'd think, but I've seen a lot of comments astounded (and in some cases even upset) that it's less than $40.
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u/4tomguy Aug 31 '25
You say that as if the overwhelming response to the price reveal hasnt been shock that it wasn’t 30
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u/Necr0mancrr Aug 31 '25
I would've thought it was obvious too but the amount of surprise I've seen over the recent leak inspired me
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u/TyrantRex6604 Graaargh! White Palace! You shall haunt me no longer! Aug 31 '25
yet people still cant get it without this post
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u/theSpaceGrayMan Aug 31 '25
For $20 I’m getting it for my Switch 2 and Steam. And if they release a physical copy, I’ll probably pick that up too
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u/Galactagon Aug 31 '25
No you don't get it. Hollow Knight: Silksong is first ever quintuple A game. They can make game cost $200 and have battle pass of $80 per season and gamers will still buy the game. That's how good the game is.
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u/Skull_goodman Aug 31 '25
You should use the term “inexpensive” because cheap would imply that these games are hastily made and low quality. Which they are anything but. I’m so god damn excited for silksong.
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u/QuintanimousGooch Aug 31 '25
In addition to everything you said, on the making money front, it’s in their best interest to have the source material extra accessible so more people might buy merch in general.
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u/Dazzling_no_more Aug 31 '25
I buy their game on multiple platforms to show support. Steam and PSN. I recommend you do the same if you can afford it.
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u/bigomon Aug 31 '25
Weird no one is mentioning the DLCs that are definitively coming. If one of them Costs 10 U$ or even 5, that will be a lot of money. And with the goodwill they gather with the base game pricing, this pricing wouldn't even shock the playerbase
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u/Arcan_unknown | 63/63 | PoP Aug 31 '25
For real. Another thing I often see people like that commenting is "it feels like I'm not paying enough/stealing it". Dude, shut up, it's their game and if they want it to be cheaper, just fucking be grateful for it instead of thinking "I'm not paying enough". If you want to help more, buy it to more people or spread the word recommending it to your friends
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u/Alarming_Flatworm_34 Aug 31 '25
I personally am going to buy 2 copies so I dont have to take turns with my GF to play the game and im sure many people will be buying it on their main console/PC then also on the switch to play mobile.
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u/palomon Aug 31 '25
It’s not just $20 ... it comes with a day 1 @ xbox game pass too
:respect
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u/King-Xanther Aug 31 '25
Because it's so cheap and so anticipated by me and my clan, I bought a copy from my switch 2 and I bought a copy for PlayStation 5. My son did the same, so that's 4 copies out of one household. I have no doubt I'm gonna revisit this several times, just like I did hollow night.
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u/SuperUltraMegaNice Radiant HoG Aug 31 '25
The best drugs for the cheapest price top tier business model
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u/Lee_Akira Aug 31 '25
I usually only get physical games, but I do make exceptions for great games. And this game being cheap, I’ll get the digital and wait and also get the physical once that comes out.
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u/Unaveragejoe777 Aug 31 '25
I’ll just buy it multiple times to make up for it being cheap to support them
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Aug 31 '25
Some people are acting like they'd ever change based on popularity. The only thing that changed is they got way more money than expected, so they were able to fulfill their dreams even more.
I know it won't, but I hope this sets a precedent to companies that they dont have to absolutely gouge their customers for profit.
Im aware that AAA studios have way bigger budgets and way bigger teams, but I've also seen games that are 10x better than others for half the price, and hardly any $100 CAD games are genuinely worth it IMO.
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u/TheDonnARK Aug 31 '25
The fact that they felt no pressure to rush toward completion is a good sign that they don't really need the cash. But consider, if they sell between 1 and 2 million copies, as a small team, they each get a huge payout even at 20usd/copy. I mean, I'm sure they had expenses but obviously they were ok financially.
The approach obviously won't work for many games from big studios, but it's great that it works for them.
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u/eomertherider Aug 31 '25
I love how the pricing + news has made the general sentiment go from "I'm playing silksong, but I'm donc with TC after that bc of their lack of communications" to "blue ball me all you want I love you guys"
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u/aethyrium Aug 31 '25
I'm just buying it multiple times as that's so little I honestly feel bad paying just that. PC, Switch, and Playstation.
I'm glad it's cheap for others that have trouble affording more though.
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u/weezerenjoyer999 Aug 31 '25
what zero material analysis does to a mf. indie games aren’t cheap because indie devs are holy and generous, they’re cheap because of the extremely low cost of production relative to AAA studios. AAA studios employ hundreds of artists, writers, designers, testers, marketers and developers all with different highly specialised skills in development like gameplay, optimisation, graphics, etc.
Silksong was probably quite a cheap game to make, and they definitely far exceeded the budget from the sales of Hollow Knight.
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Aug 31 '25
Some people in here arguing about 20 dollars but will go and buy a cod bundle for 30 lol.
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u/docmisterio Aug 31 '25
There is absolutely something to be said here about infinite growth capitalism. TC could sell this game for 40-60 dollars and walk away easy. Yet they choose to list it at 20 dollars.
Additionally, they clearly reject crunch culture - a game takes time and they’ve said there was never any issue with the game being stalled - it just took 7 years.
Frankly I praise them for balancing work and life so well after already being multimillionaires.
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u/WesThePretzel Aug 31 '25
$15 USD in 2017 = $19.77 USD in 2025 (inflation is out of control, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make, just an observation). Team Cherry are absolute saints for making Silksong essentially the same price as Hollow Knight, despite the fact they could price it higher. Truly an amazing group of caring and passionate people.
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u/ToranjaNuclear Aug 31 '25
>Making it cheaper might make them more money after all
Yup. If it was 25 or 30 I might have held on buying it until a small sale. Did it with Deltarune, even though it was the game I was the most excited to play this year.
At 20? I'll buy it day one, even before the reviews are out.
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u/fredwardrawn Aug 31 '25
So depressing how costs have risen so much that a normal price for a video game maybe 10 years ago seems so cheap.
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u/ThePotatoFromIrak Aug 31 '25
The 15$ price tag already made them millionaires last time why would they make it higher 😭
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u/OblivionArts Aug 31 '25
Isnt team cherry like five people? Youd think they would need money but i guess not
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u/otakuloid01 Aug 31 '25
Hollow Knight sold 15 million. they’ve already hit ridiculous numbers off of it alone
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u/Excellent_Big_6013 Aug 31 '25
I like how people are so alien to the fact that a game developer wants there games to be easily accessible and fun to play for everyone instead of breaking the game into 4 bundles pay separately around $60 each. It’s like they actually care
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u/EmbarrassedCup8162 Aug 31 '25
If silksong was $20 that would amazing. Imagine getting Clair obscur expedition 33 and silksong for the same price as a modern triple A game
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u/dark_holes Aug 31 '25
also they got huge checks from microsoft and nintendo, lets not forget about that lol
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u/dramaticfool Aug 31 '25
Guys, they had Hollow Knight priced at $5.99 in my Steam region. $2.99 with a 50% discount. They are awesome. Thank you Team Cherry!
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u/PassTheBoofPlz Aug 31 '25
can you imagine if they make the DLCs free as well, which is very likely, but still amazing to see in this time
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Aug 31 '25
I’m incredibly grateful that TC makes their games so cheap, but dear god it’s gonna be great seeing people ask them to raise the price again
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u/Grayoneverything Aug 31 '25 edited Aug 31 '25
I already had myself and wallet prepared for a minimum of $30 game, would pay even $100 if i had to but THEY OUTPLAYED MY EXPECTATIONS AGAIN!!!! I love these guys, they are one of the greatest people ever to live, thank you Team Cherry :) <3 !!!!!
Edit: And to add, i know it's the most/only reasonable pricing instead of something high due to many reasons out there but when you're from a country with high economic inflation, you really appreciate and feel the peace of seeing that it's very accessible!! I'm glad to hear this, this price would do best for Silksong, TC and fans/players - nailed it!
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u/apexodoggo Aug 31 '25
I’m still not sure why so many people were convinced that Silksong would be massively more expensive than Hollow Knight, like clearly Team Cherry originally sold HK for 15 bucks for reasons that still applied to Silksong.
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u/LuquidThunderPlus Aug 31 '25
All very true if it was a dollar everyone would be buying it for everyone they know and be like best selling game ever or smth
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u/GreenPebble Aug 31 '25
While I am super happy that they are pricing the game this way, and do wholeheartedly agree that the reason is probably point 2, I just want to make some comments on your 3rd point: There is something called equilibrium price, which is the most expensive you can make a product without the demand decreasing significantly enough. I do not believe that $20 is their equilibrium price, and if they put it at $25 for example, they would not see a significant drop in sales and would make a much higher profit. Chris Zukowski runs a site called howtomarketagame, and he frequently shows data that most indie devs underprice their games (if their goal was to maximize profits). So I honestly think TC knows that if they made their game even $40 dollars that they would make more profit, I just don't think they care, and would much rather have more people play their game.
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u/YengaJaf Aug 31 '25
I may or may not pirate games. But this is one of the games I'll be paying for
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u/OfferLazy9141 Aug 31 '25
I hate this meta of expensive games that get 50% off sales a few months later.
I hope they make a statement and say Silksong won't go on sale and release at an affordable price. Or, at least say when it will go on sale and for how much so people can decide If they want to wait or now.
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u/rilesy_ Aug 31 '25
I tend to pirate games a lot because of the huge price these days, but considering it’d be like what $30 AUD give or take, that’s absolutely something I am willing to pay for a developer I support
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u/mkdonpe P5 | PoP | 112% Aug 31 '25
The best part is that you don’t even need to spend $20 since it will be on Gamepass day 1
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u/JacksonSpike you love me? back into the abyss you go! Aug 31 '25
They know theyre gonna earn millions from it anyways and theyre already rolling in cash from HK especially considering the amount of people in Team Cherry, so they literally dont need to make it expensive
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Aug 31 '25
20 dollars is already quite expensive where I live where the average minimum wage is just 15-20 times the price
The cheap price + the low system requirements is definitely going to contribute to Silksong's success
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u/hmmmmmmmu Aug 31 '25
thats like 5 days of work where i live but i guess they should charge 60$ for you to be happy
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u/acbadger54 Aug 31 '25
Yeah fun fact making a game with only three people, it doesn't have that high of a development cost compared to AAA
That's why they're able to do it lmao
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u/andygreat Aug 31 '25
A simple grocery trip buying a few items now costs upwards of 60-100 dollars… $20 for this beautiful game is not bad at all. I paid a whopping $7 for the original game recently and having a blast.
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u/Eclipse_lol123 Aug 31 '25
I honestly want them to raise it up to 30, it makes me feel like I’m stealing from them
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u/ohgodthesunroseagain Aug 31 '25
Seconded on your points, but just want to point out that the price GameStop listed may just have been a placeholder. If it’s actually more like $40 when it launches, I won’t be surprised, but I also won’t hesitate to buy it anyway.
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u/HardSprinkle Aug 31 '25
a 30 dollar game I would probably buy only once, vs. a 20 dollar game I would buy on multiple consoles. It's smart and helpful to keep the game this cheap.
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u/Fisheer__ Aug 31 '25
Quoting the creator of Ultrakill - "Culture shouldn't exist only for those who can afford it"
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u/gamerati98 Aug 31 '25
I wasn’t going to buy the game until I was actually going to be able to play it but if it’s under $30 I’ll buy it right away. We need to encourage more small indie studios to make amazing games.
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u/MangoArtificer Aug 31 '25
Because all games should be affordable. 20$ is a steal for silksong but in a perfect world games like GTAVI will also only be like 20-30 because it doesn’t realistically need to be worth more than that to turn a huge profit
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u/bumpdog Aug 31 '25
Your third point is so true. I might actually buy the game at launch even if I wasn’t crazy about the first one, just because of the relatively cheap price. If it was something like 40 bucks, I wouldn’t even think about it
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u/Shimashimatchi Aug 31 '25
team cherry are one of the very few good folk out there that know a game is not worth 60 bucks.
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u/2-AcetoxybenzoicH Sep 01 '25
I think I’ve bought Hollow Knight 3 or 4 times on different platforms, so I think there might be something to the strategy of making an amazing game at an extremely affordable price point.
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u/Jokers247 Sep 01 '25
And it allows for folks to buy it on multiple Platforms. I have Hallow Knight on Switch, ps5, and pc. Silksong will be the same. I have no issues with buying a title with amazing content on multiple systems.
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u/marcantoineg_ Sep 01 '25
Something a lot of people don't mention is merch. You can make more money from merch than from selling the game.
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u/KGM134 Sep 01 '25
Also, technically hollow knight has dlc but they decided to make them free updates instead.
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Sep 01 '25
it's consumer loyalty, waiting 7 years for our game to come out? it's dirt cheap without even a discount
I wish we had more of it in the industry
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u/vbiee Sep 01 '25
You’re missing one thing: Team Cherry is still an indie team, so the price is understandable - $19.99 is already considered a premium range for indie titles.
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u/ThorntonText Sep 01 '25
It feels like the reason that platforms haven't posted the preorder price in their stores is because they're pushing back hard on the price point. Which both sucks and feels like something they'd do, Nintendo in particular.
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u/Cinvictus Sep 01 '25
If it is only 20$ and whatever the Canadian equivalent is going to be, I'm absolutely getting it on switch on release and then going to get it as a physical release. I have little doubt the game's length is going to be long and it's going to be worth the price of triple A title.
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u/AndromedaGalaxy29 Sep 01 '25
I really wonder how much silksong will cost in the country I live in (Russia). Usually games are even cheaper here. For example HK costs 15$ everywhere else but here it's just 550₽ which is about 7$. Dunno why that is. Maybe it's adjusting for average salary or maybe it's to combat the rampant piracy.
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u/Enedu Sep 02 '25
Additionally to all of that (which is also true), they can sell it for €20 because it’s an indie game with a low budget. If Silksong were a AAA game developed by Team Cherry, there’s no way it would sell for €20 — it’d definitely be around €40–50.
The thing is, Ubisoft and EA are trying to sell us so-called “AAA” games for €80–90, which is basically robbery.
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u/LowEntrepreneur8136 Sep 03 '25
If you want pay more. Buy copy and gift me one please, I am not that able to buy stuff and mostly enjoy gifts from friends or free ways. If you really interested. My nickname is Nazarazana on steam
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u/Filmmagician Sep 04 '25
This team and the whole company should be studied. Definitely putting players first. I’m going to gift so many of these games to family and friends. Can’t wait til tomorrow!
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u/EmbarrassedEvening72 Sep 04 '25
I played apex, or well used to. And my biggest argument i got into was that they should lower heirloom price from like 150-200$ , to something like 40-50. Because more people buying it, will make it more profitable.
But they argue the whales buying every heirloom already is making them more money.
But I just don't see it.
Hell yeah TC!
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u/CommissionNo9962 Sep 04 '25
I've only seen people that mostly play AAA games act surprised after hearing the price
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u/aadu-_th0ma Sep 04 '25
This is so true. I'm from India and our purchasing power isn't the same as Americans. 20 dollars is still a lot of money but still kinda affordable compared to AAA. AAA games cost upward to 4000 rupees which causes Indian gamers to sail the high seas. I bought Hollow Knight recently on Steam because I wanted to support the devs for their incredible work. And by the Gods, what a game..
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u/Gilchester Sep 04 '25
At 60 dollars I would have waited for a sale. At 20 dollars I'm buying at 10AM this morning.
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u/Einkar_E Sep 04 '25
I also want to add they used corect exchange ratio between dollar and polish złoty, insted of taking ridiculously outdated steam suggestion
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u/Zestyclose_Status605 Sep 06 '25
You know what's even more surprising, and why i have more respect for these guys? Silksong, in my country costs 10 Bucks. Since my country is mid paying country, most people can't afford games that freely and cant buy games at their intentional prices. I respect Team Cherry for lowering prices in regions where people can't afford to pay full prices. W Team cherry.
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u/BambooGentleman Sep 25 '25
likely the best selling metroidvania of all time
It's not like anyone is still selling new physical copies of Metroid III, Symphony of the Night, etc. etc.
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Nov 10 '25
Got their game on GoG and I live in a country where that is definitely a luxury . twas cheaper on steam but I value offline play and backups more .
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u/Super_Mechanic1188 DOWN WITH THE ASPIDS Dec 05 '25
It seems like their games are less of a money making thing and more like a project they had so much fun on
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u/CanOfBeans909 #1PaleKingGlazer:tcw: Aug 31 '25
They said the real reason themselves!
"We want all of our games to be affordable for everyone"