Shovel Knight Physical Release on Xbox One Cancelled

“With extremely heavy hearts, we’re sad to announce there will not be an Xbox One physical version this holiday”.

It will be a grand day when a genuinely great 8-bit game finds itself on a store shelf instead of languishing in digital, but know that when it happens in a few weeks for Yacht Club Games” “Shovel Knight’, there was no small amount of struggle involved.

First off, the release date has been pushed back due to wanting to ensure that the “Plague of Shadows” expansion being included on the discs and cartridges out of the box.

These versions’ new release is now slated on november 3 in North America and October 20 in Europe.

For a game that’s been out for a while though, the announcement may not be that disappointing.

Secondly, the price of the retail version has been increased from $19.99 to $24.99. “We didn’t want our “bargain priced” game to go straight to the bargain bin of obscurity”, said Yacht Club, “so we had to raise the price”.

In the meantime, Xbox One owners will not get a physical release of Shovel Knight at all, with Microsoft’s publishing policies cited as the issue.

If you’re a Shovel Knight fan, it’s nearly certain you’ve already played Plague Of Shadows, the free DLC launched on the 17th September. Product placement, publishing policies, and all the other little hurdles developers must clear only make the production of physical versions of their games less and less viable.

There’s a glimmer of hope for a PS Vita release, and they say to “Hang in there a bit longer, and hopefully we can make something happen!”

Shovel Knight will be available at retail on 3DS, PS4 and Wii U, as well as on PC in Europe.

“Shovel Knight”, which was released initially in June 2014, is “a sweeping classic action adventure game” with an “8-bit retro aesthetic” design, Yacht Club Games’ page for “Shovel Knight” indicated.