Trouble appears to be on the horizon for 2D brawler Skullgirls. Polygon is reporting that Konami has requested that the fighter be pulled from Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network by the end of 2013.
The news was first announced by Lab Zero Games design director Mike Zaimont during a Skullgirls live stream on Twitch. Sony was the first to inform the company of the delisting due to the fact that co-publisher Konami went behind their backs to get it done. Autumn Games, who also helped publish the title, had previously announced that their relationship with Konami had been terminated last month.
While Lab Zero Games and Autumn Games are looking to re-publish the title themselves, due to the fact that the quality assurance testers for Sony and Microsoft will only be working for a few more days before the end of 2013, the title may not be relisted until 2014. Since the title will be delisted on December 17 on the PlayStation 3 and December 31 for the Xbox 360, online play for Skullgirls will also likely be put on hold until further notice.
We enjoyed Skullgirls back when it came out in April 2012, but even if we didn’t, this would still be a troubling situation. No one wants to see a small publisher or developer struggle with getting their titles out to the public. While Konami certainly has the right to have the title pulled, this is an unfortunate situation all around.
We will continue to update you on the latest news surrounding Skullgirls.
Do you think Konami is in the right here? Or do you feel that Lab Zero and Autumn are being jerked around? Let us know in the comments section below.