30-minutes until the live reveal of the latest Hollow Knight: Silksong trailer, the Hollow Knight: Silksong Daily News Discord server is packed. Almost a hundred people are sitting in a single voice channel, chatting away, cracking jokes. In less than an hour, they’ll blow out my earphones.
Prior to the release date trailer, the regular gags are thrown out perhaps for the final time. The game will be announcing a delay, one person meekly chirps. Another boisterous and proud, declares that Team Cherry had tweeted something, lying as easily as he breathed.
“Why are there so many people on this call?” one user asks. “How many are in the official Silksong Discord?” unaware that the official Hollow Knight Discord had locked its voice channels, making Silksong Daily News the go-to spot for live reactions.
In the few minutes leading to the reveal, shock reactions at 160,000, then 200,000 people flocking to the YouTube trailer stream flow constant and jubilant through the voices of eager fans. Discord user Kelton closes down the Itch.io Silksong fan game, and settles in to watch. Everyone quickly mutes themselves as the YouTube timer nears zero, others are told to shut up.