IGN, Taylor Cocke- "Boy, do I wish Phil Fish didn’t come off as such a jerk so much of the time, because his latest tiff with Microsoft could be a really important moment for console indie gaming as a whole. Fish and his development team at Polytron released a statement recently stating that the reason they weren’t going to fix issues that some players have with the most recent Fez patch was because Microsoft was asking more money than they were willing to pay to update their game.
Taking sides in the debate between Fish and Microsoft is beside the point. This isn’t an issue between one man and a corporation that he signed a contact with, this is a sign of the times. It’s an indicator of where indie developers are at, and the problems with a distribution system based around a few large publishers with the ability to demand just about whatever they want from developers and artists."
Random Nintendo shares Indie World highlights and impressions of Fez, There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension, and Aerial_Knight's Never Yield. Plus, The Great Ace Attorney, Microsoft's Switch on a shelf, and more.
With its unique visuals, wonderful soundtrack, and addicting gameplay, FEZ is as much fun to play today as it was nine years ago. Jes from Gaming Respawn reviews.
WTMG's Leo Faria: "In short, Fez is as good now as it has always been. The reason I call this version the best way to experience this indie game is mostly due to the perfect combination of the Switch’s portability and its screen being much larger than the Vita’s. This is easily one of the best indies ever made, and one of the most important games of the past decade. Even though a lot of younger players only know it due to its troubled development cycle and some post-launch controversies, Switch owners should definitely pick this game up. This gem took an eternity to arrive on the system, but it feels right at home on it."
Phil Fish knew the terms of the contract when he signed with Microsoft. Coming out now and trying to blame them when he actively sought out exclusivity with them is quite frankly nonsense. Sure, it sucks that Microsoft charges a lot for a patch, but for Phil Fish to just turn around and say "Screw you" to all his customers is downright disgraceful.
The guy is an unlikeable scumbag, and is notorious for being a complete jackass. If you look for past interviews with the guy, he comes across as an absolute idiot. He insults other developers, other countries and has even been so low as to actually straight-up insult his fans in the past as well (with pretty colourful language, might I add).
I genuinely hope that his team abandons him and he gets driven out of this industry, because he's poison. If jackasses like him are allowed to prevail, it will have a profoundly negative impact on the indie community as a whole.
I just feel sorry for everybody who paid for Fez, I really do. Phil Fish doesn't deserve the support at all.
Gamers are the ones that get screwed everytime.
Didn't IGN give it a high score? It proves those morons didn't play the game before writing their bullshit review. What the developer did is wrong but gaming journalism doesn't help it either.
i think people should be more worried about the gamers. we all know consoles charge a lot for patches to penalize the indie dev's into releasing a more polished game. even though PC patches are free a lot of dev's take the attitude of "buy now, fix later" which in my book is far worst because some dev's may or may not fix the problems. hell even major game studios have this same attitude when it comes to their games.
I'm not defending either console for what they charge for patches. but i hate and lose respect for dev's that put out a buggy game and not take responsibility and fix their shotty product and want's to blame everyone but themselves.
1. Microsoft should be encouraging indie developers to come to their platform, not create hurdles and barriers for them.
2. Phil Fish should not have taken on such a large task all by himself. Watching the Indie Movie you could tell the development process was plagued with issues.
3. Testing for games have gotten worse over the years and now that most of us are all connected online every flaw and exploit is now so much more exemplified than ever before. Before you didn't really hear about the games having so many issues because if this issue with Fez only affects less than 1% then most of us wouldn't even have known about it. Now with the web nothing goes hidden and some developers will use the feedback to fix their game now instead of having better internal testing.
4. Games have had issues for many many years. Difference is now they can actually fix them without recalling the games or shipping out new ones. So if he chooses not to spend the money to fix his game then perhaps that may cost him future sales.
5. There are games on Steam and IOS devices that are in desperate need of updates that are often ignored, so it's not like because they don't charge as much for a patch doesn't make them immune to not having issues as well.