Lab Zero Games, creators of the fighting game Skullgirls, lay off entire staff

Lab Zero Games, the company behind the fighting game Skullgirls, has laid off its entire staff. This comes in the wake of almost the entire senior staff of Lab Zero Games leaving the company following accusations that the owner Mike “Mike Z” Zaimont had been making inappropriate sexual comments with little repercussions.

Skullgirls’ role in the Fighting Game Community

I love Fukua.#skullgirls pic.twitter.com/Q7UKOwl49l

— I_am_Pato (@IamPato10) September 2, 2020

For context, Skullgirls has often been held up as an example of how to make a good fighting game from the ground up. The game allows players to play their own way, strikes a balance between simple and complex, and has a wide range of interesting characters for players to choose from.

To add to all this, Skullgirls was developed by members of the Fighting Game Community, for the Fighting Game Community; a near perfect example of a niche product being made for a niche group. For this and many other reasons, Skullgirls has become a highly regarded fighting game, one that often gets representation larger than its community presence as a result.

Fighting game player-creator Mike Z and controversy

Mike Z has been the subject of controversy in the Fighting Game Community for quite some time, ultimately coming to a head after he made a joke at the expense of George Floyd and the BLM movement. Since then, things seem to have only gone from bad to worse for Mike Z.

Many members of Lab Zero Games accused Mike Z of making inappropriate sexual comments at their expense, at a time when the Fighting Game Community was already dealing with a number of other sexual abuse scandals. This led to many of the senior staff leaving the company, and now Mike Z has laid off the rest.

FYI Mariel has to do this because last week Mike laid off everyone who didn't quit LZ, but hasn't agreed to a severance for them yet. https://t.co/jmnZYlkYPU

— Persona 😎 (@personasama) September 2, 2020

What this means for the future of Skullgirls is uncertain at the moment. So far, it appears that the already planned DLC will continue along its current release date, but what happens after that is unknown. To add to this complexity, Hidden Variable and Autumn Games have announced that they will take over future development of Skullgirls.