This is just appalling. Lab Zero, the plucky team of devs who have been kicked around for far too long, have hit another snag in the distribution of their fighting game Skullgirls. Apparently the reason why Konami, Skullgirls’ publisher, stopped responding to their emails is that Konami was trying to secretly remove the game from PSN and Xbox Marketplace. And they succeeded! Skullgirls will be removed from PSN on December 17th and Xbox the 31st. This also explains why there were so many snags in the release of Squigly, the first DLC character on those systems. The PC version received the character just fine and are close to getting the second character Big Band, but console players are still waiting for the first DLC.
Mike Z is working hard on getting a new version out pronto, but publishing rights will be muddy, especially in foreign countries. It could be weeks, if not months until Lab Zero lines up with a new publisher, and there’s no way for them to self-publish due to Microsoft’s archaic publishing rules. Hopefully things clear up for the crew at Lab Zero soon. These guys deserve a break!
If you want to support the team, the Steam version of Skullgirls has no ties to Konami. Do not buy the build that’s up on PSN and Xbox Marketplace now. You can also buy t-shirts at http://www.eightysixedclothing.com/
Here’s a link to Mike Z, one of the developers on the Lab Zero team, discussing the specifics.
Any reason as to why konami wants to bring it down?
Nope. Mike Z even says they’re still making money off each copy sold with their logo on it. And the only reason why Lab Zero was gonna split from Konami was because Konami started ignoring them. So Konami pretty much made its own self-fulfilling prophecy.