Skullgirls development team forms new studio

The whole team behind celebrated 2D fighter Skullgirls was fired earlier this year, a surprise announcement has revealed.

The team has reformed under a new moniker, Lab Zero Games.

"Skullgirls had more than its fair share of difficulties getting to market, but thus far none have been quite this dire: last June, the entire Skullgirls team was laid off from Reverge Labs," an announcement on the new studio's website said.

"Autumn Games, the publisher and owner of the Skullgirls property, is fully behind the new studio and will continue to work with us in the future on all Skullgirls-related endeavors, such as the just-released patch, more merchandise and a few other things we can’t quite announce yet."

The lay-off, which was kept secret until now, explains the long delay getting a recent patch out the door, as well as the shelving of the PC release and first DLC character. Lab Zero Games intends to resume work on these projects as soon as possible.

"Not being able to tell anyone about these rather significant developments has almost been as bad as being largely unemployed and unable to continue our work on Skullgirls," the statement continued.

"We have always strived to be as open and transparent as our business and legal obligations will allow, but we feared news of these events would discourage our fans more than our conspicuous silence would."

Lab Zero games thanked fans for their patience and understanding, and issued an apology for the silence and delays despite their own helplessness in the matter.

Thanks, Joystiq.