Why Fez II Was Canceled
New fans of Fez might wonder why it hasn't received a sequel. The answer lies in its creator's contentious relationship with the games industry.
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New fans of Fez might wonder why it hasn't received a sequel. The answer lies in its creator's contentious relationship with the games industry.
A Nintendo Switch port of Fez was announced during April's Indie World Showcase. In spite of originally being released in 2012, the seminal indie game was one of the highlights of a presentation that featured newer games like TMNT: Shredder's Revenge and Skul: The Hero Slayer. Players introduced to Fez on the Switch through its surprise launch might why there's never been a sequel to the innovative platformer. It's understandable that they wouldn't know the story behind the cancellation of Fez II by its creator, Phil Fish.
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Fish was the main creator behind Fez, and the final, arduous phase of its five year development cycle was chronicled in the documentary Indie Game: The Movie. That spotlight gave the developers chronicled (Fish, Braid's Jonathan Blow, and Super Meat Boy's Tommy Refenes and Edmund McMillen) a higher profile than the average indie developer. That proved to be a double edged sword for Fish.
Fish became a polarizing figure. He was outspoken, especially on Twitter, where he frequently commented on his distaste for the gaming industry and gamers themselves. This helps to explain how the developer of such a beloved game could have such a toxic reputation, even if his comments didn't warrant the level of hate Fish received.
Fish's comments that Japanese games "just sucked" following a Game Developer's Conference screening of Indie Game: The Movie are an example of how he rubbed people the wrong way. Fish leveled his criticism at Japanese developer Makoto Goto after Goto asked for his opinion on modern Japanese games. Fish responded with his trademark brutal honesty. He and Jonathan Blow critiqued the Japanese gaming scene circa 2012, with Blow calling them "joyless husks" according to a later account from Fish. Fish took most of the heat online, though he would later apologize to Goto, who thanked him for his honesty.
The seeds of Fish's departure from the industry were the further planted with his company Polytron's contentious relationship with Microsoft. The Xbox 360 version of Fez, which was exclusive to the console for a year, needed a post-launch patch to iron out some bugs. Unfortunately, the patch caused save corruption issues for one percent of the game's players.
Polytron withdrew the patch, planning to submit a new one to correct the save corruption. Unfortunately, Microsoft's policy at the time would have cost Polytron a fee for subsequent patches. Rather than incur the costs, Polytron restored the problematic patch. Fish became a vocal critic of Microsoft and announced he had no plans to bring Fez II to the Xbox One.
Ironically, Fish's lack of a response was the inciting incident for Fez II's cancellation. Shortly after the game was announced in 2013, Fish and Blow chose not to comment on Microsoft's rumored decision to allow self-publishing on the Xbox One, citing a lack of information on the policy. Commentator Marcus Beer criticized the pair on the Invisible Walls podcast for their outsized presence in indie gaming, mocking them as the "self-styled kings of the indie genre" who only talked to the media when it benefited them.
Beer was especially vitriolic toward Fish, with "hipster" being the nicest thing he called the developer. Fish responded on Twitter, and the situation escalated to the point where Fish suggested that Beer compare his life to Fish's and kill himself. This may have been a poorly timed reference to a line from Futurama's Bender.
The incident was a breaking point for Fish. He announced the cancellation of Fez II and his exit from the gaming industry, saying that he chose "not to put up with this abuse anymore." The following year, Fish was hacked and doxxed by Gamergate supporters due to his support of Zoe Quinn. He vowed to leave gaming and Twitter once again, this time adding that the Fez IP and Polytron were up for sale. Fish has kept a low profile in recent years. He did work on the early PlayStation VR game SuperHyperCube with experimental gaming collective Kokoromi. However, Fez II remains cancelled, leaving the original to stand on its own.
