Skullgirls and Konami Split, Moving Ahead with Patches

[roseofbattle]

Skullgirls and Konami Split, Moving Ahead with Patches

The rocky relationship between Skullgirls publisher Autumn Games and co-publisher Konami has never been easy.

Patches to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of 2D fighting game Skullgirls have been due for some time. Back in October, Peter Bartholow, CEO of developer Lab Zero Games, wrote the developers needed help with Microsoft certification checks before rolling out the patches, but Konami had been "completely unresponsive." In an announcement to the game's Indiegogo page, Bartholow revealed Autumn Games and Konami have terminated their business relationship, meaning patches are on the way.

"As it's been alluded to in the past, things have never been hunky-dory between Autumn Games and Konami," Bartholow wrote. "Around the time of the last update, it became clear it would not be possible to proceed with the new patches as long as Konami was involved with Skullgirls."

Bartholow said testing on the patches is almost finished, but some changes need to be made before the patches can go live. Before submitting patches for certification, Skullgirls needs a new publisher in the system. Autumn Games will be listed as the sole publisher on the PlayStation Network. Autumn Games has already begun the process, and Bartholow expects the transition will be smooth, meaning a patch for the PS3 version is on the way. However, the patch for the Xbox 360 version will take more time to go live. This is because Microsoft does not support purely digital publishers. Autumn Games and MarvelousAQL, co-publisher of the PC version, are working toward a replacement Xbox Live Arcade publishing slot.

"We apologize that these deep business dealings have come between you and the first character your collective efforts have funded," Bartholow concludes, "but we're confident that subsequent patches will go more smoothly with this all of this behind us."

Source: Indiegogo [http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keep-skullgirls-growing?c=activity]

Permalink

 

[Arawn]

This is odd, I mean not the story, but the fact I just finished downloading Skullgirls less than a week ago. From what I played the game seems fine. I wonder what patching is required. Still it's interesting that process of fixing the game is troublesome for them. One would think MS and Sony would jump at the chance for someone to patch their game if problems persist. Guess there's more to it than I thought. Don't both next gen claim to be "Indie friendly"? Shouldn't they extend that to the current gen? Why wait for the next ship to clean up such a horrible policy?

 

[RaikuFA]

This is odd, I mean not the story, but the fact I just finished downloading Skullgirls less than a week ago. From what I played the game seems fine. I wonder what patching is required. Still it's interesting that process of fixing the game is troublesome for them. One would think MS and Sony would jump at the chance for someone to patch their game if problems persist. Guess there's more to it than I thought. Don't both next gen claim to be "Indie friendly"? Shouldn't they extend that to the current gen? Why wait for the next ship to clean up such a horrible policy?

Something to do with people crying out how a character/move/whatever is too powerful cause a newcomer was able to hit a guy who played Street Fighter a few times. The forces that be declared that the newcomer was too powerful and needed to whitewash his strategy.

Also something bout new guys being put in.

 

[RicoADF]

This is odd, I mean not the story, but the fact I just finished downloading Skullgirls less than a week ago. From what I played the game seems fine. I wonder what patching is required. Still it's interesting that process of fixing the game is troublesome for them. One would think MS and Sony would jump at the chance for someone to patch their game if problems persist. Guess there's more to it than I thought. Don't both next gen claim to be "Indie friendly"? Shouldn't they extend that to the current gen? Why wait for the next ship to clean up such a horrible policy?

Err Sony has allowed the patch without issue, it's xbox that has an issue. Previously it was their publisher which is why they left them.

Captcha - be my friend? - Err I think it's lonely.

 

[Josh123914]

This is odd, I mean not the story, but the fact I just finished downloading Skullgirls less than a week ago. From what I played the game seems fine. I wonder what patching is required. Still it's interesting that process of fixing the game is troublesome for them. One would think MS and Sony would jump at the chance for someone to patch their game if problems persist. Guess there's more to it than I thought. Don't both next gen claim to be "Indie friendly"? Shouldn't they extend that to the current gen? Why wait for the next ship to clean up such a horrible policy?

Err Sony has allowed the patch without issue, it's xbox that has an issue. Previously it was their publisher which is why they left them.

Captcha - be my friend? - Err I think it's lonely.

Yeah, apparently MS makes devs pay for their patches (~$40,000 I think) so its not a surprise that patching is an issue on the platform (at least for indie devs)

Also, I don't know why but this is what was droning in my head while reading the article:

 

[Reyold]

Also, I don't know why but this is what was droning in my head while reading the article:

Well, my life is complete now

 

[Objectable]

Wait... wait... I thought Skullgirls was an indie game?

 

[Mr. Q]

Congratulations to Konami for fucking up yet again and driving one more nail into their coffin. Still, I hope that the people behind Skullgirls can overcome this and keep this game going. It has a lot of fan support and its Indiegogo fundraiser got 5 new DLC characters along with many other features. But its still gotta jump through the hoops of patching for consoles like PS3 and X-Box 360 with the latter being more of a problem.

 

[-Dragmire-]

This is odd, I mean not the story, but the fact I just finished downloading Skullgirls less than a week ago. From what I played the game seems fine. I wonder what patching is required. Still it's interesting that process of fixing the game is troublesome for them. One would think MS and Sony would jump at the chance for someone to patch their game if problems persist. Guess there's more to it than I thought. Don't both next gen claim to be "Indie friendly"? Shouldn't they extend that to the current gen? Why wait for the next ship to clean up such a horrible policy?

I'm not really into the fighting genre but I have a friend who's very... uh, fond of the genre so I've heard about quite a bit of the science behind them. It's mostly about balance, mechanics in competitive fighting games are broken down to the small window of opportunity(calculated in frames...) that moves and combos can be performed. This is important because the system needs to be free enough where people can strategize the most optimal offence and defense for a wide array of situations but not to the point where a combo can take out an opponent in such a way that they have no way to respond to it. So a cycle occurs where people try to find the most combo and use it until it's nerfed sufficiently(sometimes this can be as minor as a slight input delay that messes the combo's flow enough to not be viable) and then they start looking for another super combo etc..

I invite anyone knowledgeable in the subject to correct me if I've made mistakes. I usually start to zone out after 5 min of combo and input coding talk...

Err Sony has allowed the patch without issue, it's xbox that has an issue. Previously it was their publisher which is why they left them.

Captcha - be my friend? - Err I think it's lonely.

I don't think the patch is out on either console. They just don't expect any trouble from Sony's end.

Autumn Games has already begun the process, and Bartholow expects the transition will be smooth, meaning a patch for the PS3 version is on the way.

______________

Yeah, apparently MS makes devs pay for their patches (~$40,000 I think) so its not a surprise that patching is an issue on the platform (at least for indie devs)

Spoiler

Also, I don't know why but this is what was droning in my head while reading the article:

I believe MS stopped that practice sometime in the last couple months. This issue is about MS not accepting fully digital publishers. Still stupid though.

Side note, awesome vid!

 

[Ipsen]

This is odd, I mean not the story, but the fact I just finished downloading Skullgirls less than a week ago. From what I played the game seems fine. I wonder what patching is required. Still it's interesting that process of fixing the game is troublesome for them. One would think MS and Sony would jump at the chance for someone to patch their game if problems persist. Guess there's more to it than I thought. Don't both next gen claim to be "Indie friendly"? Shouldn't they extend that to the current gen? Why wait for the next ship to clean up such a horrible policy?

If anything, believe that the development head is quite dedicated to improving and fixing his game, to the point of actively experimenting with methods to provide different effects. He's on a kick right now to cut down combo length a bit. LabZero (the developers) experiment on the PC beta version first (actually still active, but for donators to the IGG), then port them to the consoles/finalized PC version.

All finalized details will reach all versions, if I recall correctly.

 

[Grahav]

This is odd, I mean not the story, but the fact I just finished downloading Skullgirls less than a week ago. From what I played the game seems fine. I wonder what patching is required. Still it's interesting that process of fixing the game is troublesome for them. One would think MS and Sony would jump at the chance for someone to patch their game if problems persist. Guess there's more to it than I thought. Don't both next gen claim to be "Indie friendly"? Shouldn't they extend that to the current gen? Why wait for the next ship to clean up such a horrible policy?

Besides the balancing, sometimes the patches add extra features.

If you have a console look ahead for it, because said patch has a new character.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

Wait... wait... I thought Skullgirls was an indie game?

It is? Indies can have publishers too.

Conventionally 'indie' means you develop and release the game without a publisher, 'independently' from a publisher infact.

But it's true indie has kinda been used for 'any game developed by a smaller scale studio', so whatever floats your boat.



I gotta admit xbox sounds totally backwards to me(with those igh patching costs and such), why would you pay them a bunch of money for them to make you jump through extra hoops, especially when their competitor/every other platform does not treat you this way. I think i'd rather unabashedly just say 'sorry xbox fans, unfortunately your platforms policies prevent us from providing the same level of support other platforms are allow. We thank you for your understanding, and urge you to pursue another available platform if you are dissatisfied with such policies.'
Apparently they've changed a bit now though So it's not quite as bad now? still a few hoops to jump through though compared to their competitors it seems.

 

[MoeMints]

Wait... wait... I thought Skullgirls was an indie game?

It is? Indies can have publishers too.

They can't have publishers that support their funding tho.
Like saayyyy, Street Fighter EX is made by Akira but outside their own characters, they do not own a single thing about the game. Indie development, but not indie game.
A modern version of that would be Journey.

While Skullgirls is their property, it needs two publishers and an unknown amount of bought staff to even sustain development.