Fez Creator Responds to Xbox Live Policy Change

[Andy Chalk]

Fez Creator Responds to Xbox Live Policy Change

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/PHIL_FISH/status/350268376096059392]​

Fez creator Phil Fish has taken to Twitter to explain in greater and more profane detail why he's not interested in working with Microsoft no matter which policies the company changes.

The conflict between Phil Fish and Microsoft is usually attributed to Microsoft's demand [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118578-Update-Fez-Studio-Rereleases-Save-Corrupting-Patch] for "tens of thousands of dollars" to issue a patch for Fez on Xbox Live, needed to fix a rare but infuriating save-killing bug. Because of that huge fee, the patch was never issued, the game remained broken and everyone went away mad. But in a Twitter blowup today following reports that Microsoft has now dropped those fees, Fish made it clear that there's a lot more behind his refusal to work with Microsoft on future projects than just that patch business.

The wheels started turning when Fish wrote that he'd contact Microsoft to see if its new policy regarding patches is retroactive, which would presumably allow him to issue an update for Fez. But before long, he'd moved on to other aspects of his experience that had nothing to do with the patch business.

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/PHIL_FISH/status/350268862098444288]

"microsoft was our publisher on X360, and they did NOTHING. no promotion. no festivals. not a single mention in a newsletter or conference. they put us up on their shitty dashboard and somehow fuck that up too," Fish tweeted. "they put us up on the game marketplace WITH NO COVER IMAGE. the file was missing for a whole week. the first week. the most important week. when you went to buy fez, there was just a big empty rectangle with a file missing icon in the middle. for a whole week. that's what we got from our publisher microsoft game studios."

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/PHIL_FISH/status/350269103690358785]

Comparing his experience to that of Hotline Miami developer Dennaton Games, Fish continued, "look at what devolver did for hotline miami. ads everywhere, website skins, festivals, PROMOTION. that's what a publisher is supposed to do. we didnt have SHIT. i had to do EVERYTHING myself. we had no budget for advertising whatsoever. nothing."

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/PHIL_FISH/status/350270442772250626]

It's an amusing blowout, in a juvenile, "swearing is funny" sort of way, but it's also an interesting insight into just how wrong things went between Fish and Microsoft. And not to be overlooked is the statement that despite it all, Fish is looking into the possibility of issuing a patch for Fez despite his distaste for the idea. It likely won't happen - Fish called it a "long shot" - but better late than never, right?

Source: Twitter [https://twitter.com/PHIL_FISH]


Permalink

 

[Vivid Kazumi]

thanks fish.i knew you we're gunna be a **** about this and i was right.now my friend owes me 30 bucks because he had faith you would act mature about this.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Heh, Fish being Fish. Anyone who saw Indie Game the Movie knows this is par for the course. You can argue with his methods/delivery, but the guy has a point. Why go through the trouble of having a publisher if all it means is that you have to do the promotion yourself and you're limited to X360/Windows 8, and have to pay over 10 large to patch the game and make it better for everyone.

I can imagine Microsoft with the one saying "you can't self publish, but we'll publish for ya!", when it's clearly an agreement that benefits Microsoft almost exclusively.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

Ooohooo boy, he mad.

Can't say I blame the guy, though. Quite frankly, I don't know what to believe anymore. I love my 360 to death, but I still have no desire to purchase a One. I can't explain why, either. Microsoft keeps backpedaling on their policies and being so fickle.

It's such odd behavior for such a huge company.

 

[BrotherRool]

I take it that he had to sign up with Microsoft as a publisher?

 

[kailus13]

He could stand to use less swearing in his posts, but he has some good points there. It seems like the publishing deal with Microsoft had no upsides at all.

 

[Frezzato]

Interesting, I wonder if this is true (emphasis mine):

"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."

--Fish, oxm.co.uk [http://www.oxm.co.uk/43954/fez-save-bug-wont-be-fixed-says-polytron/]

Surprisingly, despite Fish's reputation and Twitter rants, I'm still interested in getting Fez for PC.

 

[kailus13]

If you can make better milk for the customers who buy your milk, why refuse to do so out of spite toward the milkman who merely makes deliveries?

If the milkman's an asshole who you feel has lost you business, would you really want to meet with him again? Or would you try to get a different milkman to sell your milk?

Tortured analogies, ho!

 

[Liggliluff]

Did he ask for these promotions? I mean, if you don't say what you want, it's hard to give you it. Everything isn't obvious.
I find this quote from Disney's The Recess fit perfectly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUTOdwx8C3U#t=588s
- "But, it's not fair, he only had to be the New Kid for a few days. I had to do it for three whole years!"
- "Hey, you should have said something"

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Ugh.

I've always been a person who felt that the work is what is important. I mean, I didn't like Axl Rose but I still enjoyed Appetite for Destruction (as an example).

But each time Fish gets someone to listen to him, each time he cries out like the least professional person on the planet, I can't help but have my image of Fez and the upcoming (in 6 or so years) Fez 2 take a bit of a hit. He's tied himself to his work in such a way that it's making me remember that game less fondly. Which is sad, because I should be able to keep the two separate.

The real test will come when his second products ships. I wonder how awful Sony or Steam will be when he doesn't have the "big evil corporation" to call out and blame all his frustrations on.

I'd also like to point out that the market has drastically changed since Fez shipped. Indie devs are being courted in a way they weren't when Fez came out. It's a fools errand to compare how they are marketed today, with how they were marketed even one or two years ago.

 

[Brussels]

He could stand to use less swearing in his posts, but he has some good points there. It seems like the publishing deal with Microsoft had no upsides at all.

Kinda funny, since shows like Jimquisition and Zero Punctuation make many points with a variety of swearing.

I would sympathize.

Then I remembered that it's Phil Fish, and anything bad that happens to him is probably deserved.

Then what about other indies that have had similar problems?

Did he ask for these promotions? I mean, if you don't say what you want, it's hard to give you it. Everything isn't obvious.
I find this quote from Disney's The Recess fit perfectly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUTOdwx8C3U#t=588s
- "But, it's not fair, he only had to be the New Kid for a few days. I had to do it for three whole years!"
- "Hey, you should have said something"

Since they acted as his publisher, I like to think that's a given. Just putting a game out with no mentions anywhere does not give you much in sales, and they want the game to sell. They didn't even fix the cover image for his game on the marketplace.

 

[Zeckt]

He may be a jerk but I respect him for having the guts to speak his mind. Microsoft is way too cold to indie dev's, and is the second biggest reason I will never buy their products anymore. First being faulty hardware.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't actually look for a professional public face when it comes to indie developers. When companies greet you with a professional front, it is generally just that: a trained, paid front. I expect PR to act professionally. I expect customer service to act professionally. I expect developers to develop good products.

One of the often encountered benefits of dealing with indies is that you get a more transparent view into the development process. An occasionally encountered side effect is a more transparent view into why developers need a PR department.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

This is how Microsoft does business. Combine that with their original idea for the Xbone and you'll see that there was never anything consumer friendly about it. Imagine if those guys have a monopoly? This is why no one should trust Microsoft and no one should buy their product. The threat of failure is not enough to change them. They need to fail hard and Steve Ballmer needs to resign from Microsoft.

 

[kailus13]

He could stand to use less swearing in his posts, but he has some good points there. It seems like the publishing deal with Microsoft had no upsides at all.

Kinda funny, since shows like Jimquisition and Zero Punctuation make many points with a variety of swearing.

Jim Sterling could also benefit from not swearing. Zero Punctuation isn't really meant to be anything other than entertainment though, so it gets a pass.

I'd also like to point out that the market has drastically changed since Fez shipped. Indie devs are being courted in a way they weren't when Fez came out. It's a fools errand to compare how they are marketed today, with how they were marketed even one or two years ago.

I think it was less how it was marketed, and more the fact that Microsoft didn't promote it at all. And the cover image thing is unforgivable.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

It's an amusing blowout, in a juvenile, "swearing is funny" sort of way,

He could stand to use less swearing in his posts, but he has some good points there. It seems like the publishing deal with Microsoft had no upsides at all.

You know, I'm really getting sick of the knee-jerk reaction of "swearing is immature". As I often say in regards to the much-dreaded "N-word", that God forbid I ever say anywhere in ear-shot of anyone lest it cause me to get fired 30 years from now; a word can only have as much power as you give it. Seriously, if there's one thing I've learned from studying other languages, it's that I quickly realized how much a word only has meaning because I have assigned it a meaning. There are probably thousands of words in my vocabulary that I cannot define, yet I know perfectly well how to use them in a sentence in such a way that everyone around me knows what they mean. And why? Because we gave those words those meanings. Seriously, it's amazing how a sentence can go from being absolutely gibberish to making complete sense, and all because I now know what sounds to associate with what words, and what meanings are generally given to those words.

So it begs the question: If you were the one who had to assign a meaning to a word, why does a word offend you unless you want that word to offend you? And why would you want a word to offend you unless you could somehow twist that offense which you placed upon yourself to make the other person sound like the bad guy? The only reason swearing is "offensive" is so that people who don't swear as much can pretend that they are somehow better than the people who do swear more often simply based on some arbitrary "standard" that the former party has agreed to follow.

In other words, calling someone out for swearing, regardless of how much or how little, is little better than calling someone out for liking the wrong video game console. In closing, I'll leave you with Steven Fry, who probably explains it all better than I do, or at the very least sounds better explaining it because of his sexy accent. Seriously though, watch both of them. He explains in two very different ways why it's completely absurd to be offended by swearing.