This was gonna be a day to nerd out hard.
7 years of waiting. Silksong was supposed to launch…
Us gamer nerds have been waiting for 7 years. Keeping an eye on the devs and seeing if they dropped any clues.
I fell for it completely.
Woke up early, cranked out 5,000 words before most people had their coffee, then rushed out to grab supplies like I was one of those doomsday prepper types…
Came home and sat there refreshing Steam every thirty seconds, watching the clock tick toward the supposed release time.
Then… nothing.
I didn’t get to buy the game, I got error message after error message. Steam crashed under the weight of millions of disappointed fans hitting refresh simultaneously.
Other platforms buckled. The internet collectively lost its shit on Reddit (as they do lol)
I was annoyed.
But it’s whatever…
Massive FOMO was at play here.
See, Team Cherry (the developers) never actually announced a release date. The gaming community created this expectation through speculation, hope, and a few cryptic social media posts that could mean anything. But when expectation met reality, it wasn’t Team Cherry who took the heat, it was the platforms that couldn’t handle the traffic.
Brilliant, actually.
They generated massive FOMO without making promises they couldn’t keep. When the disappointment hit, their reputation stayed intact because they never overpromised. The community’s excitement was self-generated, which is the most powerful kind.
Compare this to the usual FOMO disasters we see in marketing.
You know the ones with the “ONLY 24 HOURS LEFT” followed by the same sale running for three months If you go back to the page.
Or “LAST CHANCE” emails that get sent weekly. “LIMITED QUANTITIES” for digital products that can be copied infinitely, which is ironically my favourite thing to see people do.
I mean if you want to destroy trust. That’s the way you do it. That is definitely not helping you engineer FOMO.
Real FOMO works because the scarcity is genuine and the payoff is worth the wait. When you manufacture fake urgency, people catch on fast. When you create real anticipation for something actually valuable, people will wait years and thank you for it.
That’s how it’s done.
Hollow Knight built seven years of anticipation because the first game was genuinely exceptional. People weren’t just waiting for any game.
They were waiting for more of something they already loved. The FOMO was earned, not manipulated and twisted like you see nowadays.
Here’s a lite version of how to engineer FOMO without destroying your credibility:
First, build something actually worth wanting. If your product is shit. You can wrap it in as much urgency as you want but people won’t rush for it. You might get them buying it once. They won’t come back though and they will tell others.
Second, If you’re using scarcity. Be honest about it. If supplies are limited, say exactly how many you have. If time is limited, be specific about deadlines and stick to them. If access is exclusive, explain exactly what makes it exclusive.
Third, let anticipation build naturally. Drop hints. Share what others don’t usually get to see behind closed doors. Don’t make promises you can’t keep but definitely give them something to talk about. Let your audience create some of the excitement themselves.
Fourth, deliver when you say you will. If you announce a date, hit it. If you can’t hit it, communicate early and honestly about the delay. Your reputation is built on reliability. We don’t need that hype bullshit.
The Silksong situation worked because Team Cherry has delivered exceptional quality before. When they hint at something new, people pay attention because they’ve earned that attention. The FOMO feels justified because the potential payoff is real.
When you create fake urgency around mediocre products, you might get short term sales, but you lose long term credibility. When you build genuine anticipation around something truly valuable, people will wait as long as it takes and respect you more for not rushing it.
The difference between manipulation and marketing is whether you’re creating value or just creating pressure.
Today reminded me that the most powerful FOMO comes from having something people genuinely want, not from artificial deadlines and manufactured scarcity.
Even when that means watching Steam crash under the weight of seven years of patient anticipation.
And on that note. I have just refreshed Steam again and I have finally managed to grab the game.
So as it sneaks up to 8pm. I’m gonna vanish in to the night and go adventure.