Fez 2 Won't Be Coming To Xbox

[Andy Chalk]

Fez 2 Won't Be Coming To Xbox

Fez creator Phil Fish says Microsoft's turnaround on the Xbox One did nothing to change its "anti-indie policies."

Very little is known about Fez 2 at this point beyond the fact that tens of thousands of dollars [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125000-Fez-2-Teaser-Reveals-Sequel-In-Development]" to test and re-certify a follow-up patch, which was ultimately never released.

Microsoft's decision earlier this week to change gears [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125204-Microsoft-Drops-Xbox-One-DRM-Restrictions-UPDATED] on the Xbox One was met with widespread applause, but Fish didn't seem too impressed. "I don't think it changes much for me. They didn't change anything about their anti-indie policies," he said. The PlayStation 4 is a different matter, however, as Fish said Sony "seems to be doing everything right" with its upcoming console.

"With Microsoft they've made it painfully clear they don't want my ilk on their platform. I can't even self-publish there. Whereas on PS4, I can," he said. "It's that simple."

Source: Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/20/4445476/phil-fish-on-fez-2-ambition-and-launch-platforms-not-xbox]


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[luvd1]

And that is one of the reason I still will not even consider the xbox180.

 

[Baldr]

If he wants to not publish with Microsoft, it is his loss. Microsoft has been very upfront with us indies that publish with them: they are working on a indie development platform, but in the mean time, call your local evangelist if you want to publish to XBO.

Then there is always the fact that Sony will not self publish indie games that are not exclusive.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Can't say I'm shocked. The man didn't exactly have the greatest relationship with Microsoft, even without this anti-indie stance they are showing.

 

[fix-the-spade]

If he wants to not publish with Microsoft, it is his loss. Microsoft has been very upfront with us indies that publish with them: they are working on a indie development platform, but in the mean time, call your local evangelist if you want to publish to XBO.

Then there is always the fact that Sony will not self publish indie games that are not exclusive.

You forget that Fez was a 360 exclusive, whatever noises Microsoft is making publicly about indie devs, Fish has been actually dealing with them for almost two years now. He's viewing their promises through his own experience, which has been pretty much all bad, since number 2 will be multi-platform and number one is on Steam and Mac OS now I don't he stands to lose anything by ignoring Microsoft home consoles in future.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

I still don't get how it's Microsoft's fault that he released a game with a file erasing bug. Fez was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, earning enough money to choke a whale. And if memory serves, didn't they say that they were willing to work around the patch price problem with him? Pretty sure I read that in an article back then, but it has been a while.

I have no doubt that MS has some borked policies that we, the public, are not privy to. But let's not forget who gave this guy a shot in the first place. The very beast he now seeks to slay is the one that bore him in the first place.

And let's be honest, it'll be 6 years before Fez 2 ever gets to market anyway. We'll likely be on the next console cycle by then.

 

[Frostbite3789]

If he wants to not publish with Microsoft, it is his loss. Microsoft has been very upfront with us indies that publish with them: they are working on a indie development platform, but in the mean time, call your local evangelist if you want to publish to XBO.

Then there is always the fact that Sony will not self publish indie games that are not exclusive.

Yeah, charging $40,000 for patches is up front. But also sleezey and douchey.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Man, the XBone is going to be so barren of Indie Games. Microsoft is going to be the Nintendo of Indies if this kind of publicity and anger keeps up.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

If he wants to not publish with Microsoft, it is his loss. Microsoft has been very upfront with us indies that publish with them: they are working on a indie development platform, but in the mean time, call your local evangelist if you want to publish to XBO.

Then there is always the fact that Sony will not self publish indie games that are not exclusive.

Yeah, charging $40,000 for patches is up front. But also sleezey and douchey.

Being upfront & being a good company to work with are 2 very different things

Considering getting a game on Xbox requires a contract with Microsoft, a contract with a publisher, & has to be filtered through the separate contracts between Microsoft & said publisher after that, I'm not exactly sure how any part of it could possibly be "upfront", but that's just my experience with contractual business agreements in general

 

[Roander]

A patch released for that game last year turned out to have a save-corrupting bug and Microsoft demanded "tens of thousands of dollars [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118578-Update-Fez-Studio-Rereleases-Save-Corrupting-Patch]" to test and re-certify a follow-up patch, which was ultimately never released.



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So part of the ten thousand Microsoft charges is for testing the patch, a bug got through anyway, and then they wanted another ten thousand to test the new one? What exactly is it that they're testing? Whether or not his checks will bounce?

I don't think Microsoft should be responsible for finding a developer's bugs under normal circumstances but if they're going to charge for and claim to be looking for them and one gets through anyway they should take some of the responsibility for that. Ten thousand dollars should be enough to buy a decent couple of months' QA time. I get the impression that what they're actually doing is charging ten thousand dollars to run the files through an antivirus program then ftp them to a server.

 

[Roander]

I still don't get how it's Microsoft's fault that he released a game with a file erasing bug. Fez was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, earning enough money to choke a whale. And if memory serves, didn't they say that they were willing to work around the patch price problem with him? Pretty sure I read that in an article back then, but it has been a while.

Yep. That was mentioned in the article Mr. Chalk linked to:

tens of thousands of dollars [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118578-Update-Fez-Studio-Rereleases-Save-Corrupting-Patch]

Microsoft said they were willing to work around the price with the investor, though; no mention of the developer. That could just be a trivial detail or it could mean they were talking to people who were only concerned about the money involved and not about the happiness of people who had already bought the game.