Yacht Club Games has announced that Shovel Knight's release will be delayed for two weeks, and to the dismay of Xbox One users, the shovel-wielding knight won't be coming over to their consoles unless publishing policies are changed — for the physical edition, that is.
The original release date of Shovel Knight for the PS4, Wii U, 3DS and PC was Oct. 13 in North America and Oct. 16 in the UK and Europe – take note that the PC version is for Europe only – and now that the release dates have been pushed back, the 2D side-scrolling game will be available on Nov. 3 in North America and Oct. 30 in Europe. Also, PS Vita will get a physical edition of the game, but it won't be anytime soon, as its launch is delayed to sometime in 2016.
Xbox One was originally in the lineup for a retail version, but it was cancelled.
"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," Yacht Club Games posted on its blog.
However, Shovel Knight is already digitally available on the Microsoft platform, and the game developer promises that Xbox One players will "continue to receive new updates" and full support.
"We'll keep fighting to get a retail version on Xbox One, but as of now, the boxed version is in indefinite limbo," the game developer continued.
On the bright side, it seems that all other platforms will eventually get a retail version of Shovel Knight, but on the opposite end of the spectrum, the physical edition's price will be increased from $19.99 to $24.99, and it's not fueled by greed.
Retailers told Yacht Club Games that they have limited shelf space for their wares, and anything under $20 would be put in the bargain bin, which the studio didn't like.
"We didn't want our 'bargain priced' game to go straight to the bargain bin of obscurity, so we had to raise the price."
For now, let's just hope that Shovel Knight pushes through with its new release dates.
