Joe's Monologues - 3/11/2025

Hello, everyone, KnockDownJoe here and today's Joe's Monologues is gonna ruffle people's feathers. I have interesting things to talk about, so read this.

Hidden Variable's Departure:

So that morning was so devastating. When I woke up, X dropped an article telling us that Hidden Variable is no longer involved in the development of Skullgirls. I am going to tell you what happened and why Hidden Variable quit development of Skullgirls in any way, shape or form.

Let's start with what happened. The first $131,000 payment rolled in to be due November 1, 2024. The same amount rolled in to be due November 15, 2024, December 1, 2024 and December 15, 2024, January 1, 2025 and January 15, 2025. Then the $139,000 payment rolled in to be due February 1, 2025, February 15, 2025, March 1, 2025 and March 15, 2025, as well as $15,000 in expenses. But publisher Autumn Games refused to make any of the following payments they owed.

Now let's go on to why Hidden Variable quit Skullgirls development. On March 5, 2025, Hidden Variable released their statement stating that as of January 21, 2025, they are no longer involved in the development of the Skullgirls IP due to their legal dispute with Autumn Games. They are suing the publisher for breach of contract, et al. in the Hidden Variable v. Autumn Games case. Autumn had until January 21 to make payments, but they refused to do it and we don't know why. That led to Hidden Variable terminating their business contract with Autumn after refusing to make a single payment.

The post about Skullgirls Top 8 in Frosty Faustings XVII from January 20th of this year from 2nd Encore's X account has turned out to be the final post before the day Hidden Variable quit development of Skullgirls. That explains why we haven't got any news regarding 2nd Encore for so long since the general balance update or this year's roadmap and Top 8 has unfolded while they are in the middle of a lawsuit. They also added that they will not make further comments on the matter until the dispute is resolved, including a reason why Autumn refused to make payments they owed to cause a breach of contract.

Hidden Variable has thanked us for our endless support on Skullgirls for years and we allowed it to thrive. They created and supported Skullgirls Mobile, promoted Skullgirls esports with the SGCS circuit, brought new characters to 2nd Encore through its first Season Pass, expanded 2nd Encore and the Season 1 Pass to Xbox and Nintendo Switch and produced a Webtoon adaptation. From December 2014 to October 2024, Autumn and Hidden Variable had provided a business relationship between them for Skullgirls Mobile. However, when the lawsuit was filed, their business partnership between them and Hidden Variable's contract with Autumn have been terminated after nearly a decade and it was just a Frankenstein mess of ideas and things that weren't even fully cooked, because Autumn refused to pay the amount of money they owed Hidden Variable to commit a breach of contract.

In response, Autumn has released a statement regarding an update on Skullgirls that contains a glimmer of hope to gleam on from the situation. Jason Donnell stated that Skullgirls is more than a game. It is a passion project we poured our hearts into as they became an unwavering backbone and it involved in so many extraordinary ways because of support of various teams from Reverge Labs to Lab Zero Games, Future Club and Hidden Variable Studios, who were the developers of the Mobile release until they quit in light of the lawsuit.

But to get a small snippet of things, Skullgirls would get approved by Autumn Games to get developed under the Reverge Labs name and under the Konami banner. Then later, the game was removed because of Mike Z's antics, but came back as Skullgirls Encore developed under the Lab Zero Games name. Years later, Lab Zero Games has been dissolved by Mike's sexual harassment practice and others left Lab Zero to form Future Club and development of Skullgirls continued under both names of Hidden Variable and Future Club. And now, where it stands, their contract has been terminated as Hidden Variable quit development of Skullgirls because they are suing Autumn Games over the amount of money they owed. Future Club didn't even bother negotiating between the companies so that the game can continue active development without a contract because according to their X bio, they are no longer involved in the development of Skullgirls, it seems.

Reason being is that they are developing their first original game called Part-Time Hero: I'm Broke, But I'm Here to Save the World. The Kickstarter for their first original game launches in two days, so back it and spread the word about it to anyone to make it happen. If they find a publisher for this game, their project will expand to more platforms because you know, a publisher like Modus formed an acquisition with MANE6 to benefit bringing Them's Fightin' Herds to consoles and wanting a character for BBTAG and using a SEGA vs. Capcom style of showcase was the cherry on top.

Donnell also stated that Skullgirls will continue development despite Hidden Variable's quitting and they are stepping up to reinvest the project, so it's possible that they are going to pick up where Hidden Variable left off. Is it also possible that the development of Skullgirls can be much faster? Sure, it can be much faster since Autumn is a massive team of game developers, storytellers and passionate fans as the statement said. To make matters better, they are even planning to deliver on their promise to us fans as they are making changes now. Think of Epic Games. They are a massive team, which is why development of Fortnite took the shortest amount of time. Which reminds me; if we get a Skullgirls character in Fortnite, it can spark frenzy among fans of Skullgirls.

The statement has a hopeful paragraph written in bold. Guilds are coming to Skullgirls later this year and they are now actually in development since they have taken over in the past few months. That is indeed hopeful and it's only a taste as to how Autumn would usurp Skullgirls development while delivering on their promise to us; to bring new characters, new stories, new features and new game modes following Hidden Variable's departure. In fact, they are picking up where Hidden Variable left off.

After I heard Hidden Variable quit Skullgirls development, I thought we wouldn't get additional VO consisting of Annie's alternative voice pack, Japanese VO for the Season Pass characters in combat and English (and hopefully Japanese) VO for the Season Pass characters' story modes, the Season 2 Pass, Roxie, the third Guest Star, the later quarters' monthly fighters, the second season of the Webtoon adaptation and more. How naive to think that Skullgirls is gonna die. But thankfully, the things Hidden Variable have been working on are still on the docket and thank goodness for that. How is that possible is that beause Autumn refused to make payments they owed, Hidden Variable provided them with the login information required to continue providing community support for the game before they quit Skullgirls development in a way to not cause any damage to the IP.

Now, remember what I said about 2nd Encore's X post from January 20 of this year being the final post before January 21 when Hidden Variable quit Skullgirls development? I made me think of something that got me. Oh yeah, it reminds me of the transitioning from the Walt Disney Television logo to the barebones Buena Vista International logo.

But I think it's clear as to why Autumn Games would refuse to pay the total amount of money they owe Hidden Variable and cause a breach of contract. It's probably because Autumn was interested in pursuing a separate developer for the Mobile release after they failed to seek to sell their business. And to be honest, Autumn refusing to make payments to Hidden Variable was actually a wise decision as they will sell their business if they paid $1.2 million to Hidden Variable. Unless of course, if Future Club negotiated between the companies.

They also told us to stay tuned for updates soon after saying that they can't wait to take Skullgirls into the new chapter together and I am pretty dang excited for this, so updates should involve a detailed roadmap that contains news about the remaining things that are on the docket for not just Mobile, but 2nd Encore as well. In fact, with 2nd Encore being available on all four digital storefronts on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch, this new chapter is likely to be a fresh one. And with Hidden Variable no longer involved in the development of Skullgirls, they are focusing on working on their upcoming project, Spellomancer.

So, this has been on what happened before Hidden Variable sues Autumn Games for a breach of contract, et al. and quit development of Skullgirls. Though it became a sad ending to their contract, there is one silver lining on all of this. First off, if Autumn paid Hidden Variable the money they owed in the first place to avoid committing a breach of contract, then maybe Hidden Variable would still be involved in the development of Skullgirls and we would've finally gotten word about what is coming on the docket sooner. In fact, if Future Club was still involved in the development of Skullgirls, they could negotiate between the companies to continue active development without a contract like Sony did to negotiate between Naughty Dog and Universal to make their kart racer without a contract when Naughty Dog tried to break their contract with Universal for their three-game contract. If they did, Universal would sue Naughty Dog for a breach of contract.

The second thing is that Skullgirls is still in the mix at Combo Breaker, which is around the corner. Practically speaking, we didn't get an announcement for 2nd Encore at Frosty Faustings XVII because of the fact that Hidden Variable quit Skullgirls development on January 21 as they are suing Autumn for a breach of contract, et al. and during Top 8 at Frosty Faustings, the lawsuit unfolded. Here's hoping we get one at Combo Breaker, especially when we're waiting for the additional VO content to drop.

The Fall of MultiVersus:

Another devastating morning after we came across a tweet that on May 30th, MultiVersus is going to shut down again, but it's gonna be for good. What has happened is that it became a total failure. But how did it fail? It's actually not the fact that the game has shifted to Unreal Engine 5, PFG ignored their player base or gave us unwanted characters like the Banana Guard. But worse yet, it's priortizing their monetization strategy on a free-to-play game. The cause to this is during launch, skins and other things were only purchaseable with Gleamium. The currency that unlocks characters was extremely difficult to earn that it is not earnable just by playing the game. Same with the Perk and Prestige currencies. I was able to do a livestream on my gaming laptop to showcase how well the game ran on it.

I was looking forward to seeing Harry Potter, Godzilla, Furiosa and a host of others make it too. And even more exciting, Kayley from Quest for Camelot. She would be freaking dope in MultiVersus too. I mean, seriously. It's hurts to see the game bite the dust prematurely just because the developers have priortized monetization. And personally, fans seem to be happy that the game is shutting down because of its problematic thing it beared since launch. And that problematic thing was prioritizing monetization, which was caused by prompting us often to pay real money to purchase skins. But I didn't care about paying real money. I cared about having fun.

Now, let's talk about the only thing that was better than the state where MultiVersus is currently at, the Open Beta era. Now why is it that MultiVersus' Open Beta era was better that it became critically acclaimed and met with rave reviews to have a skyrocketing player base? Here is the best reason.

The best reason is the introduction of Gold. Since Open Beta, Gold was introduced and was the only free currency that was earned just by playing the game. At launch, Player First Games replaced Gold with multiple currencies. None of them were earnable through playing the game. The removal of Gold and replacing it with multiple currencies that were extremely difficult to earn was the main reason why MultiVersus' launch was lackluster. Brawlhalla remained alive for years since launch because they kept the free currency.

With MultiVersus shutting down and being delisted from digital stores on May 30th, Warner Bros. intend to shift their focus to bringing their collaborations to other games like Fortnite and Brawlhalla, which is nice, but not as nice as having a platform fighter with Warner Bros. characters that is set to shut down for good. But we are getting something nice from them, and it's a free-to-play hero shooter that is completely similar and akin to Marvel Rivals, but with DC characters. And I believe it can be called... DC Rivals?

If PFG hadn't replaced Gold with multiple currencies that were extremely difficult to earn, then the game's launch wouldn't be so lackluster. People would be thrilled to not be often prompted to pay real money to purchase decorative skins and cosmetics.

News Regarding 2XKO:

That's right, we have news regarding 2XKO. Shaun Rivera came with some news on X. The Pulse Fuse is being removed in favor of the autocombo setting each player will toggle on or off with at the character select screen. Fans delivered feedback regarding turning on autocombo while having a different Fuse. Now, I completely agree with having an autocombo setting on the character select screen while equipping a different Fuse. With the Pulse Fuse being removed, we are getting a new Fuse, which is the Sidekick Fuse. It allows the assist character to stay sidelined to support the point character, which gets more HP during the Fuse.

And as for the next Alpha Lab, we got info about it. But it's gonna be much smaller while devs build the infrastructure needed to ensure that they can bring the game to even more players and so that they can release the game sooner. Even if the next Alpha Lab is gonna be smaller, Jinx is still on the docket to be playable. And because it's gonna be a smaller playtest, the invite list will be smaller and each player has a small chance to get invited.

I made a suggestion of a new game mode where the assist character gets in battle with the point character on both sides recently. But since we're getting the new Sidekick Fuse and the game has up to four players on each core game mode, I am also going to restate my suggestion and make it a new Fuse that allows the assist character to be a second point character, so I think it's a Cross Fuse.

According to the developers, they plan to make 2XKO the best it can be, by listening to the players' feedback during the game's life cycle at launch.

Crash Bandicoot Brawl:

Canadian Guy Eh recently posted a video about an official and fake game called Crash Bandicoot Brawl. I made a reaction while watching that. Even the page is fake that it showed the wrong ESRB rating of M. Activision's Facebook account shown a fake promotion of a fake game. Activision made that game, but it doesn't exist somehow. That crap was funny, though. He was ticked off at that practice Activision had done just to trick us into filling out the survey and he ended the video by exiting his room and closing the door to get some coffee, like oh my gosh, what a weird way to end the video. His phone rang during the video too.

On the upside, I think we all know that what the fake promotion of Crash Bandicoot Brawl means. Activision could be showing us their interest of maintaining the Crash Bandicoot brand to enlist somebody to make a new Crash game. If the alleged Crash Bandicoot Brawl game becomes real, I am interested in it and I am getting it now that I got a new phone with a bigger space. In fact, if it comes to Steam, I will get it on there if it takes a very small amount of space because I gotta get a 5TB external hard drive to hold my games that use a lot of space like Mortal Kombat 1, which took a ridiculous amount of GB, and I wish we can play PS5 games directly though an external hard drive.

And speaking of Crash Bandicoot, I have neglected to tell you this on my post about finally being able to revisit my old stomping grounds. During my earlier days at high school in my old stomping grounds, I caused a conversation about how I loved Crash Bandicoot in any way, shape or form. What is special about that is that the franchise taken to a new direction when the 6th generation consoles came out. There was even a cancelled game called Crash Landed. That game didn't see the light of day because of the layoffs from Activision on that time when they bought out Vivendi Universal. I was reminising about the part where I talk about Crash Bandicoot at my high school back in the day on the time before I moved to Arizona too. It's all in good fun since uh... Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, maybe? But hey, it was worth it.

Conclusion:

Now, before I head out, I have one last thing to point out. Priortizing monetization from replacing Gold with multiple difficult to earn currencies being the main reason why MultiVersus' launch was lackluster is considered to be a lesson learned by the game industry for one reason. It is so that the developers can listen to player feedback and not prioritize monetization instead of everything else. If they do, their games will have a slim chance of biting the dust and be met with rave reviews.

We did see one game that became a huge success, Marvel Rivals. It was met with a lot of rave reviews over its handling of Battle Passes that never expire that rewards are earned anytime no matter the Season and that all characters, both current and future were unlocked from the get go. That's because the devs minimized monetization by giving us an everlasting Battle Pass that lasts for the forseeable future so that rewards can be earned anytime and make all characters free by default. I did play Marvel Rivals once and I enjoyed it on the PS5 first. I even got the Steam version, but I'll wait until cross-progression gets implemented because it's the only thing we want.

The only takeaway from all this is that maximizing and priortizing monetization is the source of MultiVersus' failure that allowed it to bite the dust prematurely. As long as other developers maximized monetization on their own games, they will have a good chance of them underperforming and shutting down their game prematurely and face a boycott. That was when in 2024, we saw Marvel Rivals get generally positive reviews at launch because of all characters being unlocked by default and the everlasting Battle Pass.

Now, if and when DC Rivals gets into production, the developers of this game can follow the footsteps of the developers of Marvel Rivals and implement an everlasting Battle Pass and make all current and future characters free by default. If they do, their game will be met with rave reviews and critically acclaimed. And who knows? They might make a free-to-play Marvel and DC crossover hero shooter.

Capcom's Plan for Reviving the FGC from Back in the Day

With the inception of the Fighting Collection series, Capcom is finally leveraging their classic fighting games from the 80s to the early 2000s and their practice is gonna revive the FGC from back in the day. Let's jump right in and talk about it.

I am back with this post that is gonna bring us some great news for us fighting game fans in the community. You would know that fighting games in the arcades from the earlier years of the 80s to the early 2000s have been a huge hit right now, starting with Street Fighter to Darkstalkers, Tekken, King of Fighters and Mortal Kombat. These games have defined the genre and they were ported to home consoles to have multiple modes. But specifically, I want to talk about the company that has been alive for years, Capcom. This company has made numerous arcade fighting games from the 80s to the early 2000s.

Capcom tried giving leveraging their arcade releases of their fighting games with their collections a go. And it pretty much went well with the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, but four of the games out of 12 (13 for the Switch version) support training mode and online play, but a couple of them like Hyper Street Fighter II were absent. Then Capcom is shaking up their practice in leveraging arcade versions of their fighting game titles using their Fighting Collection series.

The Fighting Collection series is known for having arcade releases of their fighting games from the 90s to the early 2000s in their compilation with online play having rollback netcode, jukebox, gallery and more. It was started in 2022 when Capcom Fighting Collection 1 came out and went well with having every Darkstalkers game. And it pretty much came with some issues that consist of lacking quality of life changes and crossplay, Japan only releases of sequels to Vampire Savior and Night Warriors that were inside games that never been released outside of Japan, the exclusion of Street Fighter III, which is why they had to bring in CRTs into last year's EVO and the inclusion of Cyberbots, which was the only fighting game that seemingly has a mild level of profanity that other fighting games don't. We can even turn on the initial boot display on each game and that's something arcade versions of Capcom's classic fighting games have.

However, Capcom is not the only titan of their fighting games with 2D sprites from the earlier years because SNK is also the titan of their classics and they have their own compilations of the classic KOF games in the Orochi Saga and all classic Samurai Shodown games. This led to Capcom and SNK conducting a crossover switcheroo just by bringing Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui from Fatal Fury to Street Fighter 6 and Ken and Chun-Li to Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves as DLC. That could mean they are showing their interests in making a new Capcom vs. SNK and a new SNK vs. Capcom, right? But the FGC wanted to garner fighting games that beared high status and caliber, like Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, King of Fighters, Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown and tons more.

We did see Marvel vs. Capcom 2 get ported to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions until they were removed from the digital storefronts. Then Marvel vs. Capcom Origins came along to have Marvel vs. Capcom 1 and Marvel Super Heroes, but also removed from the digital stores. It was a compilation of original titles. That's why it lacked popular titles. Thankfully, Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics came to reality to have every game of the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise in the 90s to the early 2000s. There's even a beat-em-up game that is outside the Capcom line of beat-em-up games called The Punisher. To my knowledge, it's likely that they had to put The Punisher in the collection so that we can play it as sort of a break from playing fighting games.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 became a great game because of its huge roster of characters that included the ones we don't know much about, and stages that come in two variants. The game is free from jail, thanks to the collection of Marvel vs. Capcom games from the 90s to the early 2000s. And we're going to see it at EVO as this year's throwback game. I loved the goodness of the game that it became a charm of fighting in the city and the best themes, like the Clock Tower Stage. Yes, it has home console versions. If we get the PS2 version on PS Plus Premium, it can make the fanbase unhappy.

Now, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 won't be the only throwback game we're seeing at EVO because there is another throwback game as part of the new extended lineup, and that's Capcom vs. SNK 2. We're also seeing it at EVO because it is on Capcom Fighting Collection 2, coming out May 16. The collection led to sparking fan frenzy over the inclusion of Capcom vs. SNK 1 and 2, Power Stone 1 and 2, Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein, a sequel to Star Gladiator, Project Justice, a sequel to Rival Schools, Capcom Fighting Evolution and Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper. These games deserved to be in the limelight, especially when they were released on the Dreamcast.

Over the years, we have experienced cases that were any different than the crazy stories we have came across. Soon, Capcom vs. SNK 2 follows the path of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 to be brought back into the limelight. EVO 2025 now has two legendary hitters that have a high caliber, a diverse roster of characters and dynamic 3D stages. All polished up on a silver platter and ready to go for characters to fight in the swamp and near the volcano.

Also, I received word from Keef that the EVO 2025 skit is under production. It's gonna be explosive because this year's lineup has a new extended lineup and has two of this year's throwback games that are high caliber. Since Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is on the lineup while it is not out yet, there might be a good chance that we can hear the "he could flop" phrase. We heard it on BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, Samurai Shodown, Granblue Fantasy Versus and Guilty Gear Strive so far. I am very excited for this. But only if it drops before release.

There are so many fighting games from the 80s to the early 2000s waiting to be brought back into the limelight to be compiled into several collections and ported to modern platforms. Capcom knew how to compile their fighting games from the 80s to the early 2000s into several collections with modern features and port them into modern platforms, so they have the blueprints to do that since they have a compilation of their beat-em-up games. Sure, they are arcade versions and if we get a patch that brings in quality of life changes and an offline VS Mode on all games, it can make the fanbase happy. Quality and modern formula on a future collection, meaning if and when Capcom Fighting Collection 3 is announced, they can be able to make a third compilation of their older fighting games in the earlier years, including the games in the Street Fighter EX trilogy.

To sum it all up, Capcom is reviving the FGC from back in the day by having their Fighting Collection series to leverage their fighting games from the 80s to the early 2000s with netplay, training mode support, jukebox, gallery and much more modern features on every game and EVO 2025 is going to be even more of a blockbuster because of it. This is something Capcom is trying to do since the 8th generation era and that endeavor is achieved by their Fighting Collection series, especially the one for the Marvel vs. Capcom line of games.