Just when we thought Lab Zero Games could catch a break, it turns out that Konami wants to have Skullgirls pulled from both PSN and XBLA by the end of this month.

It was revealed during the Salty Cupcakes stream last Friday that due to Autumn Games severing its partnership with Konami, Konami has requested that Skullgirls be pulled from both the PSN Store and Xbox Live Arcade without informing Lab Zero of their actions; in the worst case scenario, Skullgirls will be unavailable for purchase after Dec. 17 (PSN) and Dec. 31 (XBLA) of this month for all regions except Japan, as CyberFront is the publisher for that version.

Lab Zero is frantically working on a new build of Skullgirls to submit towards Sony before the deadline; the new build will include DLC character “Squigly”, all of the updates and additions currently available in the PC version/Endless Beta, and will remove Konami’s internal communications ID (i.e. remove Konami’s lingering partial ownership of Skullgirls). Lab Zero Games and Sony have both requested a deadline extension to Dec. 31, but Konami has yet to reply to their combined responses. Currently Marvelous AQL is the planned replacement publisher for the Xbox 360 version; while that deadline is Dec. 31, it’s unclear if a new build will be ready for submission in time.

For those who currently own Skullgirls, pre-existing downloads will not be erased, however online-play may be affected; Sony has yet to confirm if the online modes in Skullgirls will still function if the product is pulled from PSN.

In other words, in the worst-case scenario, it’s a now-or-never situation for those who are interested in purchasing Skullgirls on consoles.

Source: Twitch.TV, Shoryuken
Image courtesy of Lab Zero Games, Autumn Games