Skullgirls studio outs pirate on Twitter with strange end-game message

"What is the square root of a fish?" the message at the end of the Skullgirls single-player campaign asked. "Now I'm sad." Perhaps thinking he'd discovered some kind of oddball Easter egg, player Dan Hibiki took to Twitter to ask what it meant. But the answer, he was dismayed to learn, was that it meant he'd pirated the game.

@SaikyoChamp Oh that? It means you should probably buy the game instead of pirate it. o:) July 8, 2014

This is the point at which you might expect the conversation to come to a screeching halt, or perhaps spin off into a whirlwind of acrimony. Instead, Hibiki claimed he'd already purchased Skullgirls for the PlayStation 3 and wanted to do a "trybeforeyoubuy thing" with the PC version. He was actually planning to buy it that very day, he added, but GameStop doesn't offer it online and it's dangerous outside, or something.

@SaikyoChamp It's all good, man. Well... I mean, it isn't really, but I get it. Just try to do the right thing eventually. July 8, 2014

The conversation went back and forth a bit more—Hibiki asked if the developers planned to implement "1PvCPU or CPUvCPU," and got a quick lesson on why even seemingly simple tasks like that aren't cheap undertakings—before others jumped in to support the way Skullgirls handled the situation and give Hibiki some heat for pirating the game. But in the end, it all worked out for everyone: Hibiki tweeted earlier today that a "great fan" had donated a legitimate copy of the game to him on Steam: Not exactly the same as making a sale, but better than nothing.

Remember, kids: don't steal your games.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.