His terms of departure were so unrealistic that the board refused to accept them, which resulted in Mike staying on as the head of Lab Zero Games. Jun even alleged how, following the controversy, the company tried to make Mike Z leave. First, Cartwright, followed by animator Johnathan "Persona" Kim and artist Brian "EU03" Jun, both of whom offered more complete reports of Mike Z's extent of sexually toxic behavior. He and Alex Ahad, together with Reverge Labs. While the future of Skullgirls was uncertain, Mike Z and co. In June 2020, Mike Z made an incredibly insensitive joke during a Skullgirls Twitch stream about the last words uttered by both Eric Garner and George Floyd, both victims of police brutality whose deaths sparked cultural and political outrage. As a result, Lab Zero would remain silent on the matter, and the promised statement never came. Just a few weeks ago, the acclaimed developer of Skullgirls and Indivisible, Lab Zero Games, imploded in the wake of multiple waves of accusations against owner Mike 'Mike Z' Zaimont. Mike Zaimont, better known as Mike Z, was the lead design director and a programmer at Lab Zero Games. Mike Z teamed up with Wyckoff, also a former Pandemic employee, and Reverge Labs to bring Skullgirls to home consoles. However, with Mike Z now in charge of Lab Zero Games, he allegedly wanted the whole affair to go quiet. The company did run an internal investigation, which validated the "pattern of hostility" identified by Cartwright in her resignation letter. While Mike Z was banned from Skullgirls competitions for two years following the incident and indefinitely banned from commentating, Lab Zero Games remained surprisingly quiet about the whole affair, despite promising they would issue a statement shortly after the private messages went public. He straight-up lies, or misrepresents things he said earlier." He threatens and insults people and our partners, both directly and in public. He gets hostile and talks down to people.He makes inappropriate jokes about his dick. Mike Z insisted that the cat should remain in the game as an Easter egg, with the staff agreeing on the condition that he would animate it himself. As mentioned by former lead animator and art director Mariel Kinuko Cartwright, who helped build Lab Zero Games since its inception in 2012, in her resignation letter, " doesn't respect employees who don't work all hours. 'Mike Z cat' began as a doodle in one of the animations frames of Cerebella from Skullgirls, which the respective animator then forgot to take out. As time passed, many employees felt incredibly uncomfortable by Mike Z's actions over the years. Following Lab Zero Games director Mike 'Mike Z' Zaimonts refusal to address harassment allegations, several of the studios employees are choosing to leave. The rights are actually held by publisher Autumn Games, who would later develop a separate company, Hidden Variable Studios, to develop Skullgirls Mobile.Īccording to several employees, Mike had become wholly in-charge of Lab Zero Games by 2019. However, they did not own the intellectual property rights for Skullgirls. Mike Z and Ahad developed Skullgirls, first through Reverge Labs, then later splitting off into Lab Zero Games, alongside the rest of the Skullgirls development team.
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