Microsoft Responds To Fez Patch Controversy

Fez creator Phil Fish has been making a lot of headlines lately. He recently penned a blog post on Polytron's website which said that the Fez patch that has caused save corruption issues for some players will be going back up on Xbox Live unchanged because the company can't afford to pay the fee to get a new patch certified. The blog post caused something of an uproar in the gaming community, and up until today, Microsoft remained silent on the issue.

In a statement made to GamesIndustry International earlier today, Microsoft responded to the controversy, saying that it attempted to work with Fez investor Trapdoor to make sure that the cost of re-certifying the patch wasn't "a blocking issue" for the developer.

"Polytron and their investor, Trapdoor, made the decision not to work on an additional title update for Fez," Microsoft said. "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."

Interesting. So it seems Microsoft did at least try to help Polytron out as far as the cost of certification goes. Another interesting thing to note is that the original blog post on Polytron's website has apparently been taken down. These new developments may change the opinions of some outside observers, but none of it really matters now – the sad fact of the matter is that a deal was never struck, and the patch will remain in its slightly broken state.

Polytron says that the save bug should only affect less than one percent of players, so even with the patch going back up unchanged, the vast majority of Fez owners shouldn't have any problems with it. Still, this is a sticky situation, and we're sure that both parties would prefer it if a new patch could be released.