While I don't like neutering an artist's vision in the name of conformity or commercial pressure, it's generally a wise business practice to avoid deliberately offending your potential audience. I suppose a healthy gaming franchise needs new users to thrive, and maybe toning down the excess will broaden the game's appeal.
I agree that neutering an artist's vision is almost always a mistake, but I wonder if the artist's vision has changed with the times as well? Furthermore, with patches, updates, downloadable content, and expansion packs for games, at what point is a game, as a work of art, complete?
How do you even begin to preserve a work of art when it is constantly changing and evolving?
This is definitely important in this case. While Skullgirls definitely has a following, it's a difficult game to turn on in a couch setting because to those unfamiliar with the game, the style could easily come off as predatory.
While I have no clear opinion on this, it's hilarious that people who have had over 11 years to purchase the game, often at extreme discounts or in bundles, are rising up to proclaim that they won't be buying this game. Damn dude! I'm sure the developers are sweating bullets!