Hollow Knight: Silksong finally went live today—you may have heard something about that—and its arrival absolutely demolished Steam, which simply could not hold up under the crushing demand of Skongmania. As Steam crumbled like a train bridge made of soggy noodles, GOG did what it does best: Took a shot from the shadows.
“It appears that Silkzillion gamers worldwide are trying to get their hands on Hollow Knight: Silksong, and digital storefronts are struggling to handle the traffic,” GOG posted on X. “But the DRM-free Bastion stands strong.” Naturally, there was a link to Silksong on GOG.
It appears that Silkzillion gamers worldwide are trying to get their hands on Hollow Knight: Silksong, and digital storefronts are struggling to handle the traffic.But the DRM-free Bastion stands strong 😎👇 https://t.co/XVbkDmXLceSeptember 4, 2025
I can’t say I’d really thought about it before seeing that post, but it caught me a little by surprise because it felt, well, incongruous. The value of DRM is debatable but generally speaking it does at least help cut down on day-one piracy; releasing one of the most eagerly anticipated games to come along in years on a platform whose number-one promo point is “No DRM” was surely a high-risk move.
Except, maybe not. Sure enough, Silksong was available through less-than-legal channels almost immediately after launch, but as noticed by GamesRadar, the 2.4 million strong Piracy subreddit seemed torn on the topic: Unexpectedly, quite a few of its members have been urging people not to pirate Silksong.
“I was planning on doing it, since every recent game costs around $80 and that’s a lot of money for a game,” one redditor wrote in a pre-release thread asking how potential pirates planned to proceed. “But after the price was revealed, $20, I thought, damn that’s good, and I’m not pirating it.”
Others felt the same way, “I think I’m just gonna buy this one. It’s only $20 and I really enjoyed Hollow Knight so, I’m sure I won’t be mad about spending the money on this one,” one respondent wrote.
“Apparently it’ll only be like 20 bucks with a three person team. I can and will definitely buy it after it’s been out a week or two,” another added.
Similar responses can be seen in a bigger thread announcing that Silksong was uploaded to pirate sites 15 minutes after it launched.
“It’s a 3-4 person team that has done right by their fans at every turn,” No-Shape6053 wrote. “Making sure the PC release is DRM free. Making sure all original backers of Hollow Knight get Silksong free on their choice of platform. This is a time where if we can afford to support them, we should.”
Redditor Efrayl added: “I’m buying this game on GOG straight away, even though I will probably play it later (after a few updates and when it will be on discount).”
RandoT said he’s never purchased a full-priced game on launch day in the 10+ years he’s had his Steam account, but he’s doing it for Silksong: “It was Team Cherry that made me break my ‘vow’ to always buy on discount.”
Silksong’s release is the first time I’ve seen comments on the Piracy subreddit push for people to buy it instead.
— @airbagged.bsky.social (@airbagged.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-09-04T21:13:04.693Z
#Silksong has appeared on piracy websites for PC and r/Piracy is having arguments over pirating it, lmao
— @born2beslicker.bsky.social (@born2beslicker.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-09-04T21:13:04.668Z
To be clear, this is not a wholesale changing-of-ways. Plenty of people in the subreddit say they’re going to pirate Silksong regardless, some with the claimed intent of buying it later when their finances allow and others simply as a matter of because I can principle.
But the extent of the push to just buy the damned thing seems genuinely unusual. Much of that arises from the fact that Silksong itself is very unusual: A monster-hit (and, going by the current Steam rating, very good—we’re still working on our review but will have it up soon) game priced at $20, developed by tiny team that doesn’t seem too arsed about the accepted conventions of making and releasing videogames.
It’s not the sort of scenario that could be duplicated by Electronic Arts or Ubisoft, in other words, and I wouldn’t expect executives at any major or mid-sized publisher to look at this and think that maybe ditching Denuvo really is the way to go. Still, it does really drive home the notion that while you’re never going to stop piracy, you can sometimes turn some people around on it by asking a fair price, making a good game, and being genuine throughout. I think that’s kind of nice.
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