In an unfortunate turn of events for Xbox One owners, Yacht Club Games has announced that they have cancelled the retail version of Shovel Knight for Xbox One. As a result of this announcement from the developer, the retail version of the game will now only be available for 3DS, Wii U, and PlayStation 4. The development studio has also said that they are working very hard to make a PS Vita version possible, though if it does happen it will not be arriving in time for this holiday season. Yacht Club Games has also confirmed that every retail copy of Shovel Knight will come with a free copy of the game’s sound track.
“We know this is a bit redundant, as the soundtrack is ‘pay what you want’ online, but this provides a guilt free way to formally obtain the full, high-quality version of the soundtrack for free!”
With regard to the cancellation of the retail copies of Shovel Knight for the XBox One, the developer gave the following statement:
“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. We’re very sorry…we know there is a lot of interest – the pre-orders were really good and we thank everyone for their support!”
Yacht Club Games also announced a price change for the retail version of Shovel Knight. Originally priced at $19.99, the price has been changed to $24.99. However, your retailer “should” honor the original price if you have pre-ordered the game before this price change.
“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. We didn’t want our ‘bargain priced’ game to go straight to the bargain bin of obscurity, so we had to raise the price.”
The cancellation of retail copies of Shovel Knight for XBox one is an unfortunate turn of events for Xbox One owners, but there’s not much to be done about it. Hopefully it won’t stop them from playing the game though!