Konami will de-list the original Skullgirls on December 31

Dec 18, 2013 16:01 GMT  ·  By

Skullgirls will be available on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade once again, under the title Skullgirls Encore.

Following the parting of ways announced by co-publishers Autumn Games and Konami, Skullgirls was scheduled for de-listing from both Sony's and Microsoft's digital game stores, as Gematsu reports.

Lab Zero Games have since managed to circumnavigate the publishing issues this entailed, and therefore plan to re-release the game under a slightly different name.

On December 31, Skullgirls will disappear from the PSN and XBLA digital store fronts, and its replacement title, Skullgirls Encore, will arrive some time during January.

Owners of the original release of Skullgirls on the PSN will get Skullgirls Encore for free, in a manner similar to the way PlayStation 3 / PlayStation 4 / PlayStation Vita cross-buys work.

The bad news is that the original Skullgirls DLC will not be compatible with Skullgirls Encore. In an effort to balance this setback, Lab Zero Games will offer the character color DLC bundle for free, for a limited time after the re-launch. The bundle will also unlock Squigly and all future characters.

Previous save data will also be incompatible with the new release, and players will have a different set of trophies to earn and leaderboards to top.

For the Xbox 360 customers, Skullgirls Encore will present itself as a patched version of the original game, rather than an entirely different product. As Microsoft does not allow self-publishing on the 360, the game will be published my MarvelousAQL.

When the patch is ready, all leaderboards, achievements, save data and DLC previously purchased will still be compatible with the new version of Skullgirls Encore, and all Xbox 360 players will also benefit from the character color DLC bundle as well as Squigly for free.

The PC version has already been updated, as Steam allows for self-publishing, and the game state was not affected in any way.