callous

Hell is Us creative director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête called the surprise release of Hollow Knight: Silksong “a little callous”, believing it had an impact on his game’s sales.

Rogue Factor’s adventure game was already locked in for its release ahead of Team Cherry’s announcement, but the two games eventually released on the same day.

“When you know you’re that big, I think a shadow drop is a bit like – wow,” said Jacques-Belletête on Skill Up’s Friends Per Second podcast. “As the ‘GTA 6 of indie’… to shadow drop something like this is a little callous.”

Hell is Us Review: Death Stranding meets… ZELDA?Watch on YouTube

After Team Cherry’s announcement, the Hell is Us development team discussed with publisher Nacon whether to change the date. “It was a real thing,” said Jacques-Belletête.

However, the “real pain in the ass”, Jacques-Belletête explained, is that changing release date means refunding pre-orders. And while that wasn’t a deciding factor, the team believed they could weather the storm.

Still, Jacques-Belletête admitted Silksong’s release did impact the launch of Hell is Us. “I don’t have any specific numbers,”he said, “at least not at this time. But for sure it did.”

Above all, Jacques-Belletête highlighted the difficulties of finding an appropriate release window in the current climate.

“That’s the thing nowadays, honestly – getting a window where you’re pretty much alone is almost impossible,” he said. “15 years ago, the mid-end of the summer was always a dead period. But there’s no such thing anymore. It’s just constant madness.”

Plenty of games did change their release date in the wake of Silksong’s launch, including Demonschool and Baby Steps.

“Hell is Us is an absorbing, nightmarish meditation on the horror of war, but divisive design choices prove tedious,” reads our Hell is Us review.

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Hell is Us’ creative director, Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, has described Team Cherry’s surprise reveal of Hollow Knight: Silksong’s release date just two weeks before its launch as “a little callous.”

As reported by This Week in Videogames, Jacques-Belletête appeared in the most recent episode of Skill Up’s Friends Per Second podcast, where he discussed his and Rogue Factor’s experience releasing soulslike Hell is Us on the same day that Hollow Knight: Silksong was released, having had only two weeks’ notice that both games would release on September 4, 2025.

“We all jumped on our phones really quickly, with our publisher [Nacon] and all sorts of things like that,” Jacques-Belletête said, describing the moment the studio discovered Team Cherry had unexpectedly announced Hollow Knight: Silksong’s long-awaited release date in a trailer posted on August 21, 2025.

“I mean, they’re allowed to do what they did; there’s no laws or rules against that,” he continued. “And I don’t want to say: ‘they caused this to us or somebody else’. I don’t really care about that. I don’t want to get into that type of debate.

“But when you know you’re that big, a shadow drop is a bit like ‘wow.’

“As the GTA 6 of indie – and I know now this term gets thrown left and right, but in the industry that’s already how we were calling such a game – to shadow drop something like this is a little callous.”

Hell is Us was first announced in April 2022, with a release window slated for the following year. In October 2023, Rogue Factor announced the game was delayed until 2025, with its final September 2025 release date revealed during Sony’s State of Play livestream in February 2025.

After learning about Team Cherry’s plans to release Hollow Knight: Silksong on the same day, Rogue Factor “decided to keep the date,” said Jacques-Belletête. “And I’m happy that we did.”

“We’re still much bigger than some of the smaller [studios] who would have [been] a lot more affected and decided to change their dates,” he continued. “Changing the date of Hell is Us would have been a pretty big endeavour.”

When asked whether changing Hell is Us’ release date would have been feasible, Jacques-Belletête explained that “the real pain in the ass” of doing so was that the studio would have had to reimburse and refund player pre-orders.

He did clarify, however, that the decision to keep the date was not “just” because of this.

“We were also like ‘no, I think we can get through the storm’. But it was a thing.”

“That day, a lot of emails, texts, and messages went back and forth between a lot of people, between us and our publisher,” he continued. “It was a real thing.”

Hollow Knight: Silksong surpassed half a million concurrent players following its launch, while Hell is Us’ all-time peak concurrent player count stands at 4,431 (according to SteamDB).

When asked whether he believes Hollow Knight: Silksong’s release impacted Hell is Us’ performance, Jacques-Belletête said: “I can’t prove it, I don’t have any specific numbers, at least not at this time. But, I mean, for sure. For sure it did.”

Jacques-Belletête did emphasise, however, that “it’s not just Silksong” that had an impact on Hell is Us’ release, pointing to Bloober Team’s Cronos: The New Dawn, released on September 5, 2025, as an example of another title released during the same period. “It was busy.”

“That’s the thing nowadays, getting a window where you’re pretty much alone is almost impossible,” Jacques-Belletête continued.

“15 years ago, kind of the mid to end of the summer was always a dead period. But there’s no such thing anymore. It’s constant madness.

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Silksong’s surprise release was “a little callous”, says Hell is Us creative director

Hollow Knight: Silksong’s surprise release date was “a little callous,” says Hell is Us lead