Going to preface this by saying that I hate game theory. Some of his videos spread bunk game design theory, particularly his "why do we play games" video, so I would take what he says with a grain of salt.
You're solving the wrong problem.
He's right (to a degree, he makes it sound like this is the only method of trend setting and that this is the sole reason that the wii u is failing) but this isn't skullgirl's problem. Right now, skullgirls is at about the greatest popularity a medium budget overtly sexualized competitive 2d fighting game is going to be. Skullgirls isn't too obscure, it's reached the vast majority of its potential fanbase and a bunch of people who wouldn't normally be into this stuff too, it's never going to be the game that everyone and their mother plays because it's not nearly that accessible and that's perfectly fine. There's just this massive problem with it- lab zero isn't seeing much of the money from it. There's your big financial crisis for skullgirls.
I'll agree with you saying that Labzero not making enough money is a problem but I don't think Skullgirls has hit it's cap growth wise. A poll was taken around the time of the Indiegogo and I can't remember the details down to the number but it basically revealed that the majority of Skullgirls support comes from people who like Alex Ahad's style or people interested in the characters or story so one and so forth. But Skullgirls has plenty of room amongst the FGC. I wont bore anyone with a history lesson but we are currently in a reassurance of fighting games something I'm sure mike z took note of with the release of Skullgirls.
Different fighting games benefit from different things to gain popularity. I'll list what I believe to be these games biggest selling points from most to least.
History, being how long a franchise has been around and how recognizable the brand is.
Characters, being who the characters are and how much people like them
Community, the people that surround the game
Game mechanics, how easy a game is to pick up and play and how much effort needs to be put into being good at the game.
IP backed, is the owner of the game push it to be great with marketing, tournaments and what not.
Street fighter/ History, Characters, Community, Game mechanics, IP backed.
Marvel vs Capcom/ Characters, Community, History, IP backed, Game mechanics
Smashbros/ (Characters,can't stress this enough), Game mechanics, Community, History
Blaze/ (Characters, this is mostly JP), Game mechanics, Community, History, Ip backed, again mostly in JP)
Injustice/ Characters, IP backed, Community, Game mechanics
Killer Instinct/ IP backed, Community, History
KOF, Game mechanics, History, characters, community
Skullgirls/ (Community, Characters, (IP backed,lab zero is very vocal), Game mechanics.
I think two things can be done to build popularity.The first is to advertise the game as an anime fighter (which we already kinda do with rebel up). Lab zero has to focus on a Japanese market. If it's possible put cabinets in Japanese arcades do whatever works when it comes to the marketing of Japaneses anime fighting games. Typically the Japanese want nothing to do with american fighting games but SG is american anime.
Second and this is something we can do as americans (some might hate to hear this)
get Justin Wong, Chris G, Filipino champ, IFC Yipes, and so on to pay even a little attention to this game. these people are practically celebrities of the FGC. People watch and pay attention to the things they do and more over most of them have given SG a shot at one point, why? Because SG was made to play like MVC2 where a lot of these guys got their start. If we can somehow convice these guys to join any SG tourney they come across or stream this game more of the FGC crowd will get on the band wagon.
The entire second Renaissance of the FGC has been a bad wagon. Not sure if anyone remembers this but. A lot of people did not like the way MVC2 played when it first came out. but the right people kept playing it, look at it now.
