Shovel Knight’s retail debut pushed back, Xbox One edition ‘in limbo’

By Danny Cowan October 9, 2015

Indie developer Yacht Club Games has delayed the retail version of its throwback platformer Shovel Knight, pushing its release date to November and raising its price to account for “an unexpected turn of events.”

The studio also announced that it has canceled the Xbox One retail launch of Shovel Knight due to undisclosed Microsoft-mandated publishing policies.

“With extremely heavy hearts, we’re sad to announce there will not be an Xbox One physical version this holiday,” Yacht Club Games announced this week. “We really gave it our best effort, but unfortunately, because of publishing policies on that platform that are totally beyond our control, we couldn’t make it happen.”

The announcement continued: “We’ll keep fighting to get a retail version on Xbox One, but as of now, the boxed version is in indefinite limbo. The digital version of Shovel Knight on Xbox One is already available and will, of course, continue to receive new updates and our full support!”

The studio also revealed that Shovel Knight will be priced at $25 when it hits retail, rather than its previously announced $20 price point. Yacht Club Games notes that the price increase will combat a common retailer practice of bargain-binning games priced at $20 and below.

“Although everyone initially agreed to a $19.99 price point, some retailers ran into trouble with limited space to show off their wares, and the rules in place about where games with certain prices are displayed,” the developer explained. “We didn’t want our ‘bargain priced’ game to go straight to the bargain bin of obscurity, so we had to raise the price.”

To account for the price hike, retail copies will now include redemption codes for the digital version of Shovel Knight‘s soundtrack. Buyers will also get free access to the recently launched Plague of Shadows expansion.

Retail versions of Shovel Knight for Wii U, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo 3DS will hit store shelves in North America on November 3, and October 30 in Europe. A PS Vita retail edition is also in the works, and will launch at a later date.

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