Well, that was a quick turnaround!!! Didn't he say not so long ago that the game was ONLY meant to be played on a couch with a controller, and basically "F#@k Steam!" when asked about a PC port??? Hey, I'm not complaining (because I want it on Steam)... it's just sad that it took this long for him to realize that XBLA was the wrong choice from the start. Steam is a haven for indie developers and the game should have been developed to release there from the start. They sure as hell don't charge $40,000 to patch a game, either, that's for sure. I'm pretty sure there is no cost at all, aside from a review, and you can patch your games as much s you want to (just one of the many up-sides to working with Valve). Anyways, I'm just glad to hear that he may have had a change of heart and hope it does get released soon on other platforms.

@noibn said:

Well, that was a quick turnaround!!! Didn't he say not so long ago that the game was ONLY meant to be played on a couch with a controller, and basically "F#@k Steam!" when asked about a PC port??? Hey, I'm not complaining (because I want it on Steam)... it's just sad that it took this long for him to realize that XBLA was the wrong choice from the start. Steam is a haven for indie developers and the game should have been developed to release there from the start. They sure as hell don't charge $40,000 to patch a game, either, that's for sure. I'm pretty sure there is no cost at all, aside from a review, and you can patch your games as much s you want to (just one of the many up-sides to working with Valve). Anyways, I'm just glad to hear that he may have had a change of heart and hope it does get released soon on other platforms.

Every developer has to pretend they're pro-Xbox while under exclusivity. I'm shocked that people are still surprised about this.

@patrickklepek said:

@noibn said:

Well, that was a quick turnaround!!! Didn't he say not so long ago that the game was ONLY meant to be played on a couch with a controller, and basically "F#@k Steam!" when asked about a PC port??? Hey, I'm not complaining (because I want it on Steam)... it's just sad that it took this long for him to realize that XBLA was the wrong choice from the start. Steam is a haven for indie developers and the game should have been developed to release there from the start. They sure as hell don't charge $40,000 to patch a game, either, that's for sure. I'm pretty sure there is no cost at all, aside from a review, and you can patch your games as much s you want to (just one of the many up-sides to working with Valve). Anyways, I'm just glad to hear that he may have had a change of heart and hope it does get released soon on other platforms.

Every developer has to pretend they're pro-Xbox while under exclusivity. I'm shocked that people are still surprised about this.

Exactly -- don't bite the hand that feeds, right?

Hearing a "Maybe?" is great news. I got to play through Fez on someone else's Xbox as I don't have one anymore, and it was probably my game of the year so far, despite some technical issues. I wasn't worried by timed exclusivity as much as I was worried the company would fall apart.

@deadward: It's kind of shit that their process does not find the obvious bugs after two months of testing and then force you to pay 40k for the thing they should have found.

Can CBS afford a copy editor?

@deadward: It's kind of shit that their process does not find the obvious bugs after two months of testing and then force you to pay 40k for the thing they should have found.

@Giantstalker said:

Ugh. Indie games.

I am not a fan of the trend of indie game developers and their games being a breeding ground for pretentiousness, elitism and hipster douchebaggery. Getting pretty old already.

Back then I didn't really enjoy Patrick's writing, but in his recent pieces on indie games I have been building a lot more respect for him. It's great to have someone to champion the indie scene here at the greatest videogaming site of all time.

@Phished0ne said:

I just think the scope of the movie was WAY too broad. But that is just an issue i have with it, it was a great movie, and i really enjoyed it. But i think you could've made a WAY better movie if you focused a more intense beam on one developer than following 3. Although i do understand the idea behind getting people in different stages of their career. But Ultimately i think Fez has the best story, I really think that it should have been "Fez:The Movie". I mean, why not? its not like they had to have some crazy broad appeal to the masses. The only people that want to watch the movie already know about it and knew at least a bit about the games involved.

I don't disagree with that! I think it was pretty good, I'm glad it appeals to those without crazy in depth gaming interests (as most here in the comments probably do!). It let's me show the movie to friends of mine who aren't me, and it kinda shows a very interesting, very appealing side of the industry.

I am really liking the Double Fine Adventure episodes, Sidequests and forum posts. They go waaaaayyyy in depth about their process making games. Especially the forum posts. If you aren't a backer, you can preorder and become a 'slacker backer' with access to all those things. You might like it! I think it might be the 'intense beam' on one dev you are looking for.

"Make sure they're not assholes"

Damn Phil Fish, why you gotta be a dick?

@Sooty said:

@Giantstalker said:

Ugh. Indie games.

I am not a fan of the trend of indie game developers and their games being a breeding ground for pretentiousness, elitism and hipster douchebaggery. Getting pretty old already.

It's unfortunate that the indie game scene seems to desire to model itself after the worst aspects of the indie movie scene. Pretentious "artistes" that feel they're superior to the established industry despite said industry being filled with hearts and minds that are just as creative, driven, and talented as the best indie devs, if not more so.

He's one of those guys you can't quite get your head around... In certain situations, he's a very nice guy and he seems genuine, but there are also alot of situations that the guy seems like a zealous prick as well. There's certainly a possibility that his partner was an asshole, but there's an equal chance that he himself was the one that started being the egotistical asshat as well. Like he said, he doesn't have a filter at all and sadly, that can make you out to be a dick sometimes. While I don't support people censoring themselves, I do think that there's a certain appreciation for people who can keep their professionalism on the floor and their obscenities in their private time, or atleast use them in an entertaining or constructive sense.

I'm sure I am missing something big with Fez, but after a playthrough I really don't understand what all the 'next level' hullabaloo is about.

And for as... mixed bag as Phish seems to be as a person, I'm really glad he's making games and I really hope to see more from him as the years go on.

I want to play Fez if it ever comes to PC, but damn, between this and now the Fez 360 patch not being patched, Phil Fish can't do much else to make himself seem more dislikeable. I get the feeling that the reason everyone fell out with Fish is that he simply isn't a very nice guy to work with.

From http://polytroncorporation.com/were-not-going-to-patch-the-patch - JULY 18TH 2012

We’re bringing the first FEZ patch online.

It’s the same patch.

We’re not going to patch the patch.

Why not? Because microsoft would charge us tens of thousands of dollars to re-certify the game.

And because as it turns out, the save file delete bug only happens to less than a percent of players. It’s a shitty numbers game to be playing for sure, but as a small independent, paying so much money for patches makes NO SENSE AT ALL. especially when you consider the alternative. Had FEZ been released on steam instead of XBLA, the game would have been fixed two weeks after release, at no cost to us. And if there was an issue with that patch, we could have fixed that right away too!

We believe the save file corruption issue mostly happened to players who had completed, or almost completed the game. If you hadn’t already seen most of what FEZ had to offer, your save file is probably safe. It doesn’t happen if you start a new game.

We believe the current patch is safe for an overwhelming majority of players.

The patch fixes almost everything that’s been wrong with the game since launch. The framerate issues, the loading, the skips, the death loops, everything! All that stuff is fixed! And right now, nobody can get to it since the patch was pulled. For 99% of people, it makes FEZ a better game.

To the less-than-1% who are getting screwed, we sincerely apologize. We know this hurts you the most, because you’re the ones who put the most times into the game. And this breaks our hearts. We hope you dont think back on your time spent in FEZ as a total waste.

Microsoft gave us a choice: either pay a ton of money to re-certify the game and issue a new patch (which for all we know could introduce new issues, for which we’d need yet another costly patch), or simply put the patch back online. They looked into it, and the issue happens so rarely that they still consider the patch to be “good enough”.

It wasn’t an easy decision, but in the end, paying such a large sum of money to jump through so many hoops just doesn’t make any sense. We already owe microsoft a LOT of money for the privilege of being on their platform. People often mistakenly believe that we got paid by Microsoft for being exclusive to their platform. Nothing could be further from the truth. WE pay THEM.

So we’re going to go ahead and put Title Update back online, and for a vast majority of people it’s going to make FEZ a better game.

Thank you for your understanding and continuing support.

Sincerely,

The Polytron Team

Steam! Steam! Steam!!!!!

I never picked up Fez, but it was interesting to see the final phases of its development, and all of the stress that Fish was under. He might not seem like that fun of a guy to be around, but it's tough not to empathize with the guy. He just spent five years on a pretty big gamble that could have given way at any moment. Again, he kinda seems like an asshole (not all that uncommon among popular game designers, it seems), but you can tell he's passionate about his craft. Kudos to him for making Fez such a success.

I love Fez.

I agree, that Microsoft is running XBLA into the ground through it's own greed. I can't say whether not releasing the patch is a good or bad decision without knowing how much net profit Fez made.

But Phil Fish is still an egotistical loudmouth.

CO-OP T-Shirt FTW! http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/9/93384/2268084-screen_shot_2012_07_17_at_12.42.40_pm.png

http://www.trueachievements.com/n9824/fez-patch-back-online-with-no-save-fix-coming.htm

""Polytron and their investor, Trapdoor, made the decision not to work on an additional title update for FEZ. Microsoft Studios chose to support this decision based on the belief that Polytron/Trapdoor were in the best position to determine what the acceptable quality level is for their game.

While we do not disclose the cost of Title Updates, we did offer to work with Trapdoor to make sure that wasn’t a blocking issue.

We remain huge fans of Fez.""

Odd that they would refuse If Microsoft offered to make sure price of a second patch wasn't a blocking issue.

So what we have is a whiny Fish and Polytron that signed a contract didn't deliver on that contract in a timely manner *come on really? it took 4 years to make fez? that game at most needed 2* then when it was released the game was quite broken, the patch released was broken as well mind you 1 million dollars + was made on this game yet polytron doesn't have the money to pay for the patch and when Microsoft offers to waive the second patch fee or lessen it they refuse?

By the way it costs money to release patches on psn look up Tim Schafers thoughts on it.

It would seem to me that this is all fish and polytron not Microsoft.