On Monday June 26, 2023, the developers of the popular fighting game Skullgirls 2nd Encore released an update patch that, in addition to the traditional balance adjustments, made some changes to the game’s art and character design that have a group of players angry and sparking controversy of course “censorship”.
Through a post on the game’s official forumsDirector of Skullgirls Charley Price informed the players of the changes they made and the reason behind them. The main modifications were the following:
- They removed some of the “Nazism-inspired” iconography of the Renoir family and the Black Herons.
- They removed illustrations and animation frames that sexualized younger characters or against their own agency. In essence, the moments that revealed the fighters’ underwear and scenes from the story such as the intro of Filia, in which a man touches her without her consent, were reduced.
- They changed scenes that alluded to racial violence, such as scenes from Big Band history and some elements that could be considered tacky stereotypes, such as the ‘Saxploitation’ vocal pack.
The statement ends by saying that they know that a part of the community will not agree with the changes. They insist these came after lengthy consideration and discussion within the studio.
The community’s reaction to the “censorship” of Skullgirls
Price was right: there is a part of the community that is furious with the changes. Since the arrival of the patch, some players have taken to social networks and discussion forums to express their outrage against what they consider an act of censorship in Skullgirls. Some believe this was done to “calm the Twitter woke mob.” With ‘woke’ they refer to progressive people who may criticize some of these elements.
Because of this, The word ‘skullgirls’ became a trend on social networks. Many posts are critical of the Hidden Variable study for the changes. But most are from people mocking and making memes about those who criticize the changes..
Where the negative response to changes in the game is noticeable is in the page of Skullgirls 2nd Encore and Steam. There you can see that most of the recent player reviews are “very negative”. When reviewing, they all refer to changes and “censorship”.
Another element to keep in mind is that the changes were not only reflected in the game, but in the digital art book. This has caused some to ask for a refund, as “this is no longer the product they paid for.”
You can see the full list of game changes following this link.
Our opinion
The official statement from Hidden Variable Studios makes it clear that changes to Skullgirls were made by an internal team decision. It was not due to external pressure, so it cannot be considered censorship. We research and we could not find any cases where a group outside the study requested changes in Skullgirls. We only saw the common criticisms that are made of games like this.
The first version of Skullgirls It came out over a decade ago, and many of the elements that were changed—like the fascist Black Herons iconography and the pantyhose animation frames—come from that time. 10 years is a long time, and it’s understandable that many of the game’s developers have matured and changed their perspective on the world since then.. The immature humor and forced sexualization scenes no longer have the same grace, especially after going through events like GamerGate and witnessing the #MeToo movement, which opened the eyes of many.
We’ve seen some unsavory people use images like the Nazi-inspired iconography of the Black Herons to celebrate hateful and fascist ideologies. This is something that the creators of Warhammer 40K and they had to issue a statement about it. We would have left the images of racial violence in the Big Band story, as they reflect the sad reality of racist abuse by police in many parts of the world. However, we respect the study’s decision to alter them.
It’s worth noting that the overall ‘sexy’ design of most of the game’s female characters remains unchanged. Virtually all of their suggestive and provocative poses and attitudes are still there. The essence of the game remains intact despite the changes. The truth is that the vast majority of the community seem more interested in balance changes than whether or not you can see one of the characters’ underwear when it falls to the ground.
