The Sea of Sorrow expansion for Hollow Knight: Silksong was intended to release back in August of this year, but a few months later, the DLC has still not arrived for the celebrated Metroidvania. This heavily reflects the release of the base game, which was mired in mystery and delays until its sudden launch back in 2025. That being said, two years is hardly a wait for a game’s extra content, at least compared to other titles that made their fans endure multiple years of anticipation before developers finally integrated something new.
A Bloomberg interview with Team Cherry, the developers behind Hollow Knight: Silksong, confirmed initial plans to release the Sea of Sorrow expansion before August 21, 2026, but clearly, that hasn’t happened yet. Similarly, the “final” DLC for the game had a planned August 2027 window, but delays to Sea of Sorrow may prevent that date from coming to fruition as well. Fans are currently worried about another long cycle of waiting for more Hollow Knight, with minimal updates putting the project in limbo for an unclear amount of time. Ironically, this wait has been short so far compared to others.
The Delicious Last Course is a wonderful expansion to Cuphead, containing new levels, bosses, and even a new character for players to control in the form of Ms. Chalice. What sets this DLC apart from other games is that it not only matches the high-quality of the original game, but often surpasses it in visual presentation. Cuphead is a game that mimics the rubberhose, cartoonish art style of old Disney and Popeye animations, using hand-drawn frame-by-frame artwork to create complex levels for players to experience.
Even the making of Cuphead took forever due to the individual hand-drawn frame approach of the base game, but the expansion was on a whole other level. The Delicious Last Course was announced only one year after Cuphead came out in 2018, yet it took four years to eventually release in 2022. The wait was more than worth it in the end, with the final boss of the DLC being one of the most impressive displays of artistic skill any game has any claim to having. Studio MDHR, the developers of Cuphead, were never deterred by the DLC’s delay, prioritizing high standards over something done quickly with half the effort.
In truth, the DLC almost took five years to come out rather than four, as production on it was already underway when the base game of Cuphead dropped. Some players have criticized the short length of the Delicious Last Course, as it only takes around 2-3 hours to beat, but the difficulty of Cuphead adds replayability for those looking to get perfect scores in DLC levels and boss fights. Most fans consider the avoidance of crunch from Studio MDHR to be for the greater good, but not every game with a big delay had this luxury.
The development history of Final Fantasy 15 is, to put it lightly, complicated. The base game took almost 10 years to create, falling into multiple periods of “development hell” due to rebranding of the series and other technical problems, such as switching to a new game engine. Publisher Square Enix had significant changes of leadership too, leading to a doubling down on the MMO formula of Final Fantasy 14 (which worked out for that game in the long run). So, by the time Final Fantasy 15 came out, it was incredibly rushed, with mixed reviews and strange gameplay systems that didn’t always fit well together in the final product.
That being said, the Episode Ardyn DLC didn’t fair any better, taking around three years after the base game release to come out. This was part of a post-launch plan for Final Fantasy 15, where new story content was added to build off the game’s main characters, with expansion “Episodes” for figures like Gladiolus, Prompto, and Ignis, the companions of protagonist Noctis. By the time Episode Ardyn came out, the DLC was focused on the game’s antagonist, providing the final expansion of the game’s story before the series would move on. By 2019 when this DLC came out, though, players were far more ready for Final Fantasy 7 Remake to come out the following year.
Anyone who was a fan of Kingdoms of Amalur back in 2012 can tell you that the game was far from perfect, with RPG gameplay that didn’t go over quite so well upon its launch. However, the promise of fixes never truly took place, not until the game re-launched itself in 2020 with Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning. This was a huge overhaul of the title, not only making it available on modern platforms, but also improving gameplay ideas and refining what was unique about the title. As such, this newfound support allowed players to anticipate new content, in the form of the Fatesworn expansion.
Fatesworn was something that had to be built from the ground-up, as the remastered and refined game had tons of problems developers needed to correct. The final version of the game with the DLC is excellent, but it took until 2022 for players to get their hands on Fatesworn. This marked a ten year gap between the launch version of Kingdoms of Amalur and what can be considered its “definitive” edition. While the Fatesworn edition came with prior DLC content called The Legend of Dead Kel and Teeth of Naros, the third expansion is where the game really came into its own.
To this day, what happened to Kingdoms of Amalur represents one of, if not the, longest gap between a base game and its most anticipated DLC. What made Fatesworn such a major addition to the game was how it finally delivered on a promise from long ago — creating excellent post-game content for players to explore. New mechanics combined with a fresh story and never-before-seen map region, almost feeling like a fresh game drop. Increases to character level caps and expanded crafting, combat, and story features all helped this game survive its long expansion wait time strongly.
The 2014 edition of Mario Kart 8 is something almost unrecognizable today due to its Deluxe expansion, which became a definitive version of the game similar to Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning. Originally released for the Wii U, Mario Kart 8 was far from disappointing at launch, as it provided the same arcade racing that fans desired within a new entry to the celebrated series. That being said, fans quickly realized that despite the solid new racing maps and expanded gameplay ideas of Mario Kart 8, it getting DLC support was going to be a test of patience.
The Deluxe Course Pass DLC for Mario Kart 8 didn’t come out until February 2022, a remarkable eight years since the base game came out. At the point of the DLC, most players had moved on to the next Nintendo console, moving from the Wii U to the Switch a long time ago. Fans were expecting a new installment in the series at that point before more tracks, but the surprising expansion was welcomed by those who enjoyed what Mario Kart 8 had developed into on its own. Six sets of eight new racing maps certainly helped this DLC shine, with it acting as a precursor to 2025’s Mario Kart World on the Switch 2.
These days, it’s more likely that a gaming DLC project will get cancelled rather than release after so much time in limbo like the expansions on this List. Unique cases like indie game DLC has a better chance at survival over time, as they have the excuse of a smaller studio working with limited resources, thus making whatever comes out take longer to create. Hopefully, Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s Sea of Sorrow expansion doesn’t take another eight years to release, but fans should count themselves lucky that a longer delay isn’t as likely.
What is your least favorite wait you’ve ever had to do for a game to come out? Let us know in the comments below!
