In today’s Kickstarter update for Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, Wayforward mentions that they’re looking into releasing physical box & disc copies of the game. Wayforward is a digital publisher and therefore can only publish games in a digital format themselves, and cannot publish physical copies. However, after getting many requests from fans, Wayforward is now in discussions with publishers to make this happen!

We’ve received a ton of requests for physical versions of Shantae. Thing is, WayForward is a game developer and a digital publisher – but not an authorized retail publisher. In order to make physical copies of our games for stores, or distribute games in certain countries, console manufacturers require us to work with an authorized publishing partner. You’ve seen us do this before; Square Enix published LIT for WiiWare in Japan, Capcom distributed the original Shantae cartridge in the US, and more recently Intergrow released the boxed version of Pirate’s Curse in Japan for Nintendo 3DS.

Due to the success of Half-Genie Hero’s Kickstarter campaign – and the positive support from fans and press – we’ve been able to enter into discussions with top tier publishers to do the same for Half-Genie Hero.

Wayforward also reassures backers they will still receive download codes and the content of the game will not be affected by this.