April 15, 2015April 16, 2015

Beowulf Comes to Skullgirls Encore on April 17th

It’s been a little more than two years since Skullgirls‘ Indiegogo campaign ended, and we’re nearing the end of production of the DLC that our fans funded.

The latest addition to the lineup is Beowulf, a pro wrestler loosely inspired by the epic poem of the same name. You can download Beowulf on PS3 completely free this Friday, April 17th!

A well-meaning meathead, Beowulf comes out of retirement to fight the Skullgirl only to find he’s in for much more than he bargained for.

PS4/Vita Update

Hold on to your butts, because we’ve got a bunch of new info on the PS4/PS Vita version of Skullgirls for you!

First up, Skullgirls on PS4/PS Vita will receive a slight name change — Skullgirls 2nd Encore.

Since these versions will be the ultimate Skullgirls experience, with all the new characters, new modes, and features, we wanted to differentiate it a bit from Skullgirls Encore, while also making it similar.

Why did we want to keep the subtitles similar? Because Skullgirls 2nd Encore will support cross-platform play across the entire PlayStation family: PS4, PS3, and PS Vita users will all be able to play against each other online!

Skullgirls 2nd Encore will be cross buy as well — we haven’t settled on the price yet, but you’ll get both the PS4 and PS Vita versions when you buy one. Note that current PS3 owners won’t get the new releases free — we’re putting a lot of work into these versions so we can’t just give them away, but we think the new features and improvements will be worth the upgrade!

We’ll have more information on the release date later, but hopefully this will get you more excited until then!

Robo-Fortune Update

The final Skullgirls DLC character, Robo-Fortune, is almost complete!

She’s got lasers galore, tons of puns, and comes with our most ambitious stage yet.

Everything here is still work-in-progress, but as you can see she’s coming along nicely!

Comments are closed.

67 Comments

28 Author Replies

Teh_AKOD
April 16, 2015 at 6:55 am PDT

This is amazing. There are very few fighting games worth it on the Vita (some even date back to PSP!) so its nice to see some new games of this genre on the Vita. Loved the PS3 version, can’t wait to test the new character and will gladly pay for the 2nd encore just for the Vita.

Any chance for a Physical copy or is this digial only? Also how much space will it take?
- Peter Bartholow
  April 16, 2015 at 2:52 pm PDT
  
  We’re looking into a physical release, but for now it’s digital-only.
  
  And not entirely sure of the final file size yet, because the art gallery for Beowulf and Robo-Fortune isn’t done yet. I expect 3-4 GB, though.
KingSpica
April 16, 2015 at 7:57 am PDT

when you said the PS3 is hitting limitations will a physical disc help with that a little?
- Peter Bartholow
  April 16, 2015 at 2:54 pm PDT
  
  No, we’ve hit the limits of what we can do with the PS3’s RAM.
  
  This is an oversimplification, but wach character is around 90 megs, and we have 256 megs of RAM to play with. And we have to get 6 characters in there with complicated streaming magic.
  
  We’ve had to do a number of things to optimize the memory for the larger characters, like procedurally downres the shading layers, palettize some effect, etc. It’s mostly unnoticeable unless you’re really looking for it, but it was a huge and unexpected amount of work trying to get some of these new characters to fit.
KingSpica
April 16, 2015 at 8:03 am PDT

to: Teh_AKOD

read comment 37 i think that answers your question
TheJimWolf
April 16, 2015 at 9:51 am PDT

Hey Lab Zero,

Thank you for making the PS4 a separate buy, I was broke during the Indigogo and that hurt. Then you made a massive contribution to the community with your driver solution for PS3 joysticks.(btw Ed Boon thanks you for my MKXvpreorder purchase) I feel obligated to give back for what I get and games don’t grow on trees. So other than the obligatory SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!! Game devs and top tier animators need to eat or they no work. Personally I think the PS4 ver. should be a minimum of $15 for an impulse-buy volume push…any lower any you get diminished value via underpricing(really should be at least $20 at this stage)

P.S. I would like to extend my thanks for your commitment to making the best sprite based fighter to date. After Capcom convinced me to re-buy 3 versions of Darkstalkers, only to get a super special surprise with …. nothing. (MvC3 is not my Jam or Jelly.) Big Band riffs on Sasquatch but Cleo is straight up the best Anakaris tribute I could of hoped for. You did what no one else would do and you did it better than the big studio’s.
- Peter Bartholow
  April 16, 2015 at 2:55 pm PDT
  
  Thanks for all the kind remarks, man – really means a lot to hear we’re doing good by our fans.
KingSpica
April 16, 2015 at 5:40 pm PDT

hmm.. i see yea lol i wouldn’t have noticed that so that means new gen PS4 and Xbox One won’t have these problems?
- Peter Bartholow
  April 16, 2015 at 8:55 pm PDT
  
  The entire game fits into the PS4’s memory like 6X times over so… no, it’s not a problem, haha.
TJF588
April 16, 2015 at 9:18 pm PDT

While I have Skullgirls twice over for PS3 already, in the interest of PS+ junkies and other newcomers, might you consider making the 2nd Encore afford the PS3 version, plus or sans DLC? That way, truly full set (and especially permanent set, for those from PS+) by buying 2nd Encore, but still requiring 2nd Encore itself to be bought for all the new goodies (meaning, buying the PS3 version would no trigger Cross-Buy). Sort’f like what PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale(?) did, where the PS3 version gets you the Vita version, but not vice-versa.

And though it’s greedy of me to ask, any price incentives for Indiegogo backers? I mean, now that I have a PSTV (T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U for supporting it!) and intend on a PS4 down the line, I’d buy it sometime regardless, but I’m always one to pry-&-try, nyoro~n.
TJF588
April 16, 2015 at 9:23 pm PDT

*watches Robo-Fortune progress* Why have I been keeping myself in the dark?! That looks wicked, and the music sounds fitted into Skullgirls, but now roboticized! And she (it?) is getting a story mode too, if memory doesn’t fail? Oh, I can see Valentine getting some air-time there~
SilentNova
April 17, 2015 at 6:52 am PDT

Glad to hear more information about the PS4/PSVita releases. The original was a day one buy for me on PS3, so I got Encore for free. I will definitely pay to support 2nd Encore. Thank you guys for your hard work on Skullgirls. It has been an enjoyable experience. I like the unique characters you brought to the game. If you ever start a campaign for actual sequel, I would support that as well. I am aware of how much that costs though and it was a lot of really hard work with complications to make Skullgirls, Encore and now 2nd Encore. Really though, thank you!
MyrequeArk
April 17, 2015 at 8:40 am PDT

Thanks for the answers guys, definitely buying it when it launches.

Please don’t use the touchscreen or rear touch pad unless you ABSOLUTELY have to.

Thanks for paying attention to the community, appreciate it! :D
FeistFan
April 17, 2015 at 3:24 pm PDT

Got a 900+ Meg update today, and I can see Beowulf in the list of characters, but I can’t select him. Will he show up in the store eventually as a free “purchase,” like Squiggly, Eliza, and Big Band did? He’s not there yet…!
Gamerzlimited
April 17, 2015 at 6:38 pm PDT

@klassymike Well guess what? You won’t see it anymore, as long as one post gets the low rating and not a whole week of them. Nope, they don’t know me as a troublemaker as I was here way longer than you. I only started this hashtag thing for only a week and looks like it’s finished. Where did I ever said to Ryan that I’m going be ratings monitor, blog police, or whatever you called it? I only told him that “None of this is his fault.” I bet that he’s getting hate messages from various PSN users for no apparent reason. Go right ahead, I’m not falling for you bait.

Oh and Peter, ignore this. This isn’t directed towards you. Lab Zero Games is a great developer and don’t let the haters get to you. I look forward to playing the new character.
Knightfyre
April 18, 2015 at 7:08 am PDT

You can easily access your preferred power options.
KingSpica
April 19, 2015 at 7:27 am PDT

yes i know i know I’m late i hope you still there Peter

do you have a Twitter?

so… the PS4 makes it looks 6 times better than the PS3?

so… the PS4 version will look,like PC or better?
AnddoGX
April 24, 2015 at 1:32 am PDT

Waiting very patiently for the PS4 release. Please don’t make us wait long.
DanDLionRO
April 26, 2015 at 9:47 pm PDT

Thanks for the great news!! Even though I already bought Skullgirls for PS3, paid for it again to have it over Steam and backed it up at indiegogo I’m definetly paying for it again to have it on the go in the vita, just a quick question, are the announcer voice packs still coming out? I noticed the russian one on the last update and absolutely loved it!! Can’t wait for a sequel guys, you made a game I loved as much as Street Fighter and trust me that is hard to achieve! Lots of love to Lab Zero!
thegodofgreen
April 27, 2015 at 10:14 pm PDT

thought the ps4 version was going to drop on the 17th too
SHIN-O-B
May 11, 2015 at 11:53 am PDT

is that really a girl smh