Ninja Gaiden 4 Directors Emphasise Fair Challenge as Silksong Surpasses 3.2 Million Steam Sales

The long-running debate around difficulty in games has resurfaced with two major titles in the spotlight: Ninja Gaiden 4 and Hollow Knight: Silksong. As Silksong dominates sales charts, Ninja Gaiden 4’s directors are doubling down on the idea that challenge should always remain fair, not arbitrary.

Ahead of the upcoming release of Ninja Gaiden 4, the directors Yuji Nakao of PlatinumGames and Masakazu Hirayama of Team Ninja discussed their philosophy on balancing difficulty in an interview with Automaton. Both noted that the new entry would stay true to the legacy of the series while refining its sense of fairness between player and enemy.

“What really stands out throughout the Ninja Gaiden series,” said Nakao, “is how enemies are on equal footing with the player. They guard, and they even use throws.”

He continued by describing the main development goal as not only providing intense, satisfying action but also creating what he called “the cathartic release of overcoming disadvantageous odds.” This theme of struggle and relief has defined the franchise since its earliest days.

Hirayama added that the relationship between the player and the game’s combat design is built entirely around this notion of fairness. According to him, the perception of fairness is what determines whether the experience feels rewarding or frustrating.

“If the player gets killed unreasonably,” he said, “it's hard for them to reflect and think about what they could’ve done differently. But if they die because they made the wrong choice among several options, they'll think, ‘Okay, let's try this instead’. That kind of trial-and-error cycle requires a fair dynamic between offense and defense to work. That's something we talk about a lot at Team Ninja, and it's something we've always valued throughout the series.”

The director also noted that Ninja Gaiden 4 is not designed to be an easy experience. “It’s not a game you’ll be able to breeze through,” Nakao said, pointing out that hardship is deliberately woven throughout the gameplay. “That sense of catharsis you feel when you overcome those challenges is something I truly value.”

At the Tokyo Game Show, Xbox detailed the game’s difficulty options, which will cater to both series veterans and newcomers. The game is expected to launch later this month on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

While Ninja Gaiden 4 prepares to test players with its punishing combat, the industry conversation around game difficulty has been heavily influenced by Hollow Knight: Silksong. The sequel from Team Cherry has drawn renewed attention to the question of accessibility and challenge in modern action titles.

According to recent analysis from GameDiscover, Silksong has already sold 3.2 million copies on Steam since its release. Before launch, it had been the most wishlisted title on the platform with 4.8 million wishlists, most of which appear to have converted into full purchases. The game also reached a peak of over 587,000 concurrent players two days after release, making it the 17th most-played game on Steam.

Outside of Steam, Silksong continues to perform strongly across other platforms. GameDiscover estimates roughly 500,000 copies sold on both PlayStation and Switch, as well as 1.5 million downloads on Xbox Game Pass. This puts the game at nearly half the total sales of the original Hollow Knight, only weeks after launch.

The original game sold around 15 million copies, and the audience overlap between both titles is remarkably high. Data suggests that nearly 79 percent of players are returning fans, with roughly one in five owners of the first game buying the sequel immediately on release.

Part of Silksong’s success has been attributed to its accessible pricing strategy. The game was released at a lower cost than many expected, reigniting discussion about the value and pricing of indie titles. Combined with strong word of mouth and long anticipation, this has helped Team Cherry’s sequel rapidly climb the charts.

In the wake of Silksong’s launch, the conversation around game difficulty has become more prominent once again. Ari Gibson of Team Cherry previously explained that players “have ways to mitigate the difficulty via exploration, or learning, or even circumventing the challenge entirely, rather than getting stonewalled.”

With both Ninja Gaiden 4 and Hollow Knight: Silksong drawing attention for their demanding gameplay, the debate over what makes difficulty fair or unfair shows no signs of slowing down. For now, fans of challenging action games appear to have two major titles setting the tone for how developers handle that fine balance between punishment and reward.