The almost absurd obsession with getting things just right often displayed by Polytron founder Phil Fish is well known among most independent gaming circles, especially now that said obsession has been shown to the world at large via Fish's role in Indie Game: The Movie. Having seen the anger and anxiety Phil shows when things don't go quite right, it's not too terribly difficult for one to imagine how he might be reacting to the realization that the first patch for Fez is kind of broken.

Yes, Polytron's long-awaited patch to its previously long-awaited Xbox Live Arcade game has arrived, and it does fix many of the issues intended, including several crash bugs and save file issues. However, it also comes with a very important caveat, in that it may now read your save file as corrupted. The good news is that there is a potential workaround. If you flush your Xbox 360 cache, it should fix the problem. However, if it doesn't, then there is currently no other solution. It's worth noting that flushing your system cache deletes all patches and updates to the system, which means that the game will just ask you to install the patch again upon reboot. You'll then have to play the game offline to avoid installing the patch.

Polytron, for its part, is "floored" that the issue wasn't discovered during testing, and will update on the situation once they know more.

So, hey, maybe don't install that patch just yet. And if you see Phil Fish walking around cursing up a storm, maybe give him a little breathing room until all of this is resolved. There's no sense in upsetting him more than he almost assuredly already is.

The almost absurd obsession with getting things just right often displayed by Polytron founder Phil Fish is well known among most independent gaming circles, especially now that said obsession has been shown to the world at large via Fish's role in Indie Game: The Movie. Having seen the anger and anxiety Phil shows when things don't go quite right, it's not too terribly difficult for one to imagine how he might be reacting to the realization that the first patch for Fez is kind of broken.

Yes, Polytron's long-awaited patch to its previously long-awaited Xbox Live Arcade game has arrived, and it does fix many of the issues intended, including several crash bugs and save file issues. However, it also comes with a very important caveat, in that it may now read your save file as corrupted. The good news is that there is a potential workaround. If you flush your Xbox 360 cache, it should fix the problem. However, if it doesn't, then there is currently no other solution. It's worth noting that flushing your system cache deletes all patches and updates to the system, which means that the game will just ask you to install the patch again upon reboot. You'll then have to play the game offline to avoid installing the patch.

Polytron, for its part, is "floored" that the issue wasn't discovered during testing, and will update on the situation once they know more.

So, hey, maybe don't install that patch just yet. And if you see Phil Fish walking around cursing up a storm, maybe give him a little breathing room until all of this is resolved. There's no sense in upsetting him more than he almost assuredly already is.

Aha! is this my chance?

Edit: Got it!

that asshole phil fish is probably fucking breathing fire at polytron

Is that why it took 5 years to make fez

Woah, imagine all the people downloading this right now, losing their saves files. Cries of anger everywhere!

Makes you wonder what their patch testing department does all day when they delay these things for months and then don't even test out the most basic functionality, like, I don't know, if a game completely destroys the save file...

Anyone any idea on whether this affects only old pre-patch saves or if starting a new game and saving that would still be open to the bug?

Phil Fish got got by little Jimmy.

by far the best XBL release this year. I hope they are faster with the next patch, so more people can enjoy it.

Really hope they fix this patch, I can see a lot of unhappy customers if their hard-earned effort is completely eradicated due to a bug. I should know, a bug erased my Cloud save for the damn game and now I'm too discouraged to return to it :/.

Maybe the busted patch is part of the metagame. Has anyone run the numbers to find out what percentage of players the bug affects, then converted that number into hexadecimal and plugged the result into an ICBM address or something?

@Eristocrat said:

Aha! is this my chance?

Edit: Got it!

With that post, I'd say the achievement is well deserved.

Good thing I already beat Fez!

.

Oh well, I already did everything there was to do.

Fuck sake. Downloaded it earlier.

@cannonballBAM said:

@Bravestar said:

by far the best XBL release this year. I hope they are faster with the next patch, so more people can enjoy it.

He didn't say "worst".

@cannonballBAM said:

@Bravestar said:

by far the best XBL release this year. I hope they are faster with the next patch, so more people can enjoy it.

What?

All part of Phil's master plan.

@evanbower said:

All part of Phil's master plan.

To give himself a stress induced stroke?

I lost my save game a month or two ago and had to start over. It really made me never want to pick up the game again...

Do you think most of the shouting and cursing Phil Fish is doing right now is in English or in French?

bwahahaa, gg polytron.

People are still playing Fez?

Based on what I've seen from Indie Game the Movie. I'd say Phil is just too damn meticulous with his stuff. He focuses so much on the details he misses the obvious shit. Unfortunately it also seem like he just curses himself into oblivion for it rather than try to improve from it.

Makes you wonder what their patch testing department does all day when they delay these things for months and then don't even test out the most basic functionality, like, I don't know, if a game completely destroys the save file...

One of the few instances where I think that Alex was decidedly the wrong choice for writing an article, considering past events. Normally, I don't mind at all. Here, some of the comments sound spiteful. Not so cool.

Stop pulling Mr. Fish's tail, Alex.....

Hey, its okay, Phil Fish makes perfect games and doesn't need the big developers for anything!

Another reason to wait a day or so on downloading a new patch for ANYTHING.

@onan:one, they don't have a "patch testing department", it's literally him and one other dude. Two, they didn't "keep delaying the patch", they kept sending it to Microsoft for certification and it was taking forever.

Do SOME research at least PLEASE.

@DavoTron said:

@onan

Makes you wonder what their patch testing department does all day when they delay these things for months and then don't even test out the most basic functionality, like, I don't know, if a game completely destroys the save file...

What testing department? Isn't it like 3 dudes?

Have you never heard of Microsoft certification? Microsoft doesn't just upload every file their given no questions asked.

Karma?

So I should be good if I started a new game today, right? I just started playing it for the first time today.

Do you have to pay Microsoft money to push out a patch?

I thought Bioware said something like that, but I'm not sure.

I have been unable to play this game since experiencing a crash a week after release. Patched first thing this morning and now it says my save file is corrupted. Do I really want to start this game over and lose the 56 cubes I've collected? Grrrrrrrrrr!

@Illuminosopher said:

Karma?

Uh...for what? The internet overreacting to a relatively harmless things he said, that was misinterpreted by most.

Do you have to pay Microsoft money to push out a patch?

I thought Bioware said something like that, but I'm not sure.

Hrm, I haven't touched it since I finished the first playthrough. Guess I'll wait.

So Microsoft in their great wisdom allowed $40K to be released into their bank account for a patch which wipes out every save....

I had a similar issue just weeks after launch... my save file was lost. As much as I love the game I probably wont finish it now, starting from scratch and redoing it just wouldn't be much fun.

@TheGorilla said:

@DavoTron said:

@onan

Makes you wonder what their patch testing department does all day when they delay these things for months and then don't even test out the most basic functionality, like, I don't know, if a game completely destroys the save file...

What testing department? Isn't it like 3 dudes?

Have you never heard of Microsoft certification? Microsoft doesn't just upload every file their given no questions asked.

Thank you.

@tamriilin said:

@onan:one, they don't have a "patch testing department", it's literally him and one other dude. Two, they didn't "keep delaying the patch", they kept sending it to Microsoft for certification and it was taking forever.

Do SOME research at least PLEASE.

Learn SOME reading comprehension, PLEASE.

I was referring to Microsoft Certification when I said "they." EVERYTHING going through them takes forever, and that's fairly common knowledge. Retail games, XBLA games, DLC, and patches. Why you'd assume I was talking about Polytron, I have absolutely no idea.

@yoshimitz707 said:

@Crixaliz

Do you have to pay Microsoft money to push out a patch?

I thought Bioware said something like that, but I'm not sure.

Yeah, it's some ridiculous number like 40k, IIRC.

In a way, I sort of support this idea... well, providing it worked. My assumption is that it is intended to discourage shipping of broken games just to patch them on release. I mean, it doesn't really stop people from shipping broken games, so...

I have had no problems with patches for modern Japanese games...

@glyn said:

So Microsoft in their great wisdom allowed $40K to be released into their bank account for a patch which wipes out every save....

Thats not exactly how that bug works

I have had no problems with patches for modern Japanese games...

Sounds like this will push back or even fully cancel the possibility of this game ever getting a release on other platforms. They need to get this version right first, then think about other platforms. If another patch will take this long to create, they might just be satisfied with the game as it is and decide not to revisit it to port it to other platforms... and start another game?

Seeing as how it'll take another 5 years.

Hey Alex maybe you should release a patch before writing an article about someone elses patch???

@artgarcrunkle: Alex is a bug

@Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

@charlie_victor_bravo said:

I have had no problems with patches for modern Japanese games...

Yep, my Soul Calibur Sexy Maid Outfit Super Pantsu Edition DLC installed just fine.

probably because it was already "installed" on the disc

Oh, I would have been pretty bummed if my file got corrupted. Thanks for the heads up, Alex.