I'm back with a Skullgirls post that I felt driven and passionate to make. Also, as you can see, it has been a year since my father died and I attended at my father's funeral, did a repast and had fun at the bowling alley at my old stomping grounds. But let's not talk about that and move on to something very interesting. Anyway, let's get right into the post.
Now, before we can actually go over what happened and why Hidden Variable left what was essentially their baby, we need to talk about how Hidden Variable took over the whole franchise in the first place. Back in 2020, the developers had left Lab Zero Games because of Mike Z's behavior and went on to form their own development studio, Future Club. This is a development studio they formed and it's basically the same people without Mike Z. They also stepped up for the development of the Skullgirls IP with Hidden Variable because they stated that they planned to work with the people who left Lab Zero Games, which is a great thing.
Back in 2021, the next chapter of Skullgirls development has began with the Season 1 Pass that contains four new characters. Now, if you look at the previous years, Annie came out in 2021. Then Umbrella came in 2022, followed by Black Dahlia in 2023. And the cherry on top, Marie came out in 2024. However, there was no crunch time. And once all characters came out along with update and the Season 1 Pass for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox ports, they would double their efforts on the general balance patch. Originally, they wanted to bring in the additional voice content in 2024, but they decided to release it in 2025 for quality so that there wouldn't be problems.
In addition, the extension beyond the gaming realm was established, ranging from the Skullgirls Championship Series to the Webtoon comic. The efforts to allow Skullgirls to thrive and recieve community support became a resounding success since Hidden Variable taken over the franchise as a whole. Guest Stars came to Skullgirls Mobile with the inclusion of Minette, Brain Drain and Roxie, who is being delayed for quite some time along with the additional voice content. We can now talk about what happened and why Hidden Variable would walk away from a legendary franchise they allowed it to thrive since 2021 and why are the respective things we've been waiting for are delayed.
Well, let's get to what is factual, then we can get to what we heard on the grapevine of things. In January 21, 2025, Hidden Variable is no longer involved in the development of the Skullgirls franchise due to that legal dispute with Autumn Games being the subject of litigation filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in March 5, 2025. Hidden Variable is suing Autumn Games for breaches of contract, the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and for goods and services rendered according to the court papers. However, they also added that they wouldn't make further comments until the dispute is resolved. And now, we have another question to answer. Why Hidden Variable is suing a kind publisher like Autumn for multiple breaches they have committed?
Back in November 1, 2024, payments have started rolling in. Hidden Variable announced that Autumn must make that payment. However, Autumn refused to make a single payment and that led to them being sued by Hidden Variable for multiple breaches and even $1.2 million they say they are owed, which is why Hidden Variable walked away from such a franchise that have thrived for the past years.
But it turns out that Hidden Variable is not the only company that walked away because Future Club also walked away from Skullgirls development, the same people minus Mike Z, as they were working on their first original indie title, Part Time Hero: I'm Broke, but I'm Here to Save the World. But it did not reach the funding goal. It fell way short from it. And now, they are on hibernation, but they'll be back at some point.
Now, without a developer in sight, there's no way Skullgirls will continue active development... until one glimmer of hope came.
Jason Donnell of Autumn Games released a statement saying that Skullgirls is more than just a game, it's a passion project. They are stepping up to reinvest in the IP. For the past 15 years, Autumn worked behind the scenes as the unwavering backbone with various developers like Reverge Labs, Lab Zero Games, Future Club and Hidden Variable Studios. They have been here from the beginning and allowed Skullgirls to thrive for years. To make it even more groundbreaking, Guilds are coming to Mobile later this year and they're getting very close to releasing as they are in the final stages of testing.
How is that possible, and how is a publisher gonna be continuing active development of Skullgirls? Well, after Autumn made none of the payments by January 21, Hidden Variable has provided Autumn with all of the account login information required to continue providing community support for the game so that it wouldn't cause a single damage to it and Skullgirls would continue active development regardless. They done that before walking away from Skullgirls development and suing Autumn then. Autumn may have been an unwavering backbone and worked with various developers, but thankfully, none of the developers that Autumn worked with owned the rights to Skullgirls. The rights are owned by Autumn Games, generally meaning that they have the power to brand the Skullgirls IP however they wished and wanted and pass it on to a different developer. What this means is that Mobile and 2nd Encore are still alive regardless.
Speaking of 2nd Encore, this brings me to my point. Remember what I said that additional VO for the Season Pass characters are still on the docket? I don't think that we're get the additional VO for the Season Pass characters this year Hidden Variable had originally planned before they quit Skullgirls development, so I have thought about this for a while and believe that Autumn is not gonna pick up where Hidden Variable left off during the development of 2nd Encore this year because they need to get the extraordinarily long promised feature being Guilds out of the way first before taking over 2nd Encore development. But that's just me speculating and spitballing. But it can be true because if we go back to Jason for a second here...
"However, it has become especially clear that we have not been delivering on our promises to you the fans; to bring new characters, stories, features, and game modes in the way you deserved. To be blunt, that is why we're making changes now."
"We are not a massive corporation stepping in to take over; we are game developers, storytellers, and passionate fans, just like you."
Now, this is something you need to hone in on. This means Autumn is making changes to guarantee us to bring in new characters, stories and all that to not just Mobile, but 2nd Encore as well in the way we wanted, so Roxie, the Season 2 Pass and yes, Beowulf's Origin Story, are thankfully still on the docket along with the long-awaited English and Japanese Story Mode and combat VO for the Season Pass characters and this is considered as big. This has been a scintilla of relief when Autumn has made it clear that Skullgirls is here to stay and they're stepping up to build its future.
Just so you know, I don't think that Autumn is gonna poke the bear when it comes to Skullgirls that they wouldn't release new characters or pick up where Hidden Variable left off with development of left over content like additional VO for the Season Pass characters in 2nd Encore until the Guilds are released as Guilds are an extraordinarily long promised feature being the most important one and fair enough. Skullgirls development may not be the same as when Hidden Variable was involved, but we did have a Backstage Pass that featured new variants for the Renoir sisters, though. It became another reason why I wanted Umbrella to make her playable debut so bad, along with a Louise Belcher palette that got as close as it did with a Linda Belcher palette for Parasoul.
Since Skullgirls is staying, this also means the second season of the Webtoon adaptation is still on the docket, living up to the fact that the people at Autumn are not just game developers, but storytellers as well. I want to know what will happen next because Season 1 left me on a cliffhanger. With all of the awesomeness that would be Pokémon: Advanced Battle, BlazBlue: Alter Memory, Arcane, Sonic Prime, Johnny Test, League of Super Evil, Looney Tunes, Bob's Burgers, Kim Possible, Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM and even a little bit on Super Mario Bros. Z, an anime adaptation on Netflix would be awesome.
See, you would know that the part where Hidden Variable quit and walked away from Skullgirls development on January 21st after the final post from January 20 the 2nd Encore account posted on X reminds me of the transition between the Walt Disney Television logo to the Buena Vista International, Inc. logo. However, nothing has ever got as close as it did with the Cartoon Network skull logo. But this has been a scintilla of relief that a publisher like Autumn owns the rights to Skullgirls and not developers they worked with behind the scenes as the unwavering backbone so that Autumn would brand the IP and pass it on to a different developer.
While Autumn taking over Skullgirls' ongoing development is a great deal, there is one thing that could've happened that serves as a silver-lining of all this. Now, if I remember correctly, Naughty Dog and Sony had worked together under a licensing deal from Universal to make Crash Team Racing after Sony negotiated between the companies after Universal treated Naughty Dog poorly by turning off the air conditioning to the building, right? So, if Future Club was still involved in Skullgirls' development while Hidden Variable is still having a legal dispute with Autumn, then maybe they could negotiate between the companies so that both Hidden Variable and Future Club would work together under a licensing deal from Autumn so that Hidden Variable would have the least amount of contact with Autumn as possible.
But rest assured that this will be a good difference that if Autumn get Guilds out of the way, the new chapter of Skullgirls development can REALLY begin in 2026. That will hopefully light the way to a brilliant future for both 2nd Encore and Mobile. They will not make a lampoon out of themselves in both sections like they did to get themselves wound up getting sued by Hidden Variable for several breaches and $1.2 million after their refusal to pay what they owe.
Speaking of making a lampoon out of themselves in both sections, did you know that moderators of the Skullheart Forums made a lampoon out of themselves and ruined people's reputation with their pig slop low content post penalty smear, on both the Beta thread and the visual issue reporting thread? I have the link to the post that covers all of that if you're interested.
No comments:
Post a Comment