Shoryuken has reported that Konami requested Skullgirls to be delisted from PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.
Lab Zero Games’ Mike Zaimont revealed on a Salty Cupcakes, Skullgirls’ weekly stream, that Konami put in the request without informing Autumn Games. The game is scheduled to be delisted on PlayStation Network on December 17 and Xbox Live Arcade on December 31. This comes on the heels of Autumn Games severing its partnership with an “unresponsive” Konami back in November.
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This is where things get sticky for all involved. Lab Zero has submitted appeals to hold up the delisting as Sony’s Q&A goes on a winter break as of December 17. Besides a rather nasty breakup, the end result is that if new submissions don’t get approval by Sony before its winter break, Skullgirls will be removed from the PSN storefront and will not return until builds are approved by returning QA teams.
Delisting does not delete a game from a console, but it is unclear if online play will be affected in North America, Europe, and other regions outside of Japan because the Japanese release was published by CyberFront. Marvelous AQL is set to take over publishing duties of the XBLA version, but that transfer doesn’t take place until December 31.
On the bright side, Lab Zero’s newest build to submit to Sony brings the game up-to-date with the PC Steam version. It just isn’t clear to anyone involved when that update may take place.
Are you a fan of Skullgirls? Is Konami playing hardball? Let us know what you think of these developments in the comments below.