The physical retail version of "Shovel Knight" was originally scheduled to release for multiple platforms in North America on Oct. 13 and in Europe by Oct. 16. However, developer Yacht Club Games have announced on the official website that the release date has now been pushed to Nov. 3 and that the Xbox One version has been canceled.
According to the official post, the reason for the delay was due to development on Plague of Shadows, the game's first major DLC that will allow players to use the character Plague Knight in an all-new campaign. The developers explain that they intend to include the DLC in the physical retail version of "Shovel Knight."
The game's price has also altered from $19.99 to $24.99 due to the way that retailers display their games on their store shelves, with those in a certain price range getting different spots. It is likely this change was to prevent "Shovel Knight" from being dumped in a bin for low-price games and discount titles.
Lastly, the Xbox One version of the physical copy has been canceled. Yacht Club Games explains that the culprits behind this are the "publishing policies on that platform" without giving further details. The developers state that a future release is still possible but not at this time.
However, the digital version of "Shovel Knight" will still be available for Xbox One owners and it will still receive regular updates.
As compensation for the delay and price change, Yacht Club Games is also including the game's soundtrack album for all physical copies of "Shovel Knight." Each copy will come with a special code that will allow players to download digital copies of the songs online, for free.
The physical retail version of "Shovel Knight" will be available for the Playsation 4, Nintendo Wii-U and Nintendo 3DS. Yacht Club Games have also explained that they are working on a physical retail version for the PS Vita, although there are no guarantees it will be released. PS Vita players can still get the digital version of the game.
