The saga with Microsoft and Polytron Corporation over Fez is a long and storied one. The game was an Xbox 360 exclusive for a while, but despite that, Polytron weren’t given the freedom to adjust the game as/when needed.
This is partly due to the extortionate fees Microsoft charge to update a game.
However, Microsoft have recently backtracked on their stance, making it cheaper to do this. As a result, Phil Fish revealed via his Twitter feed that a patch is now coming to Xbox 360.
Pretty straightforward quote, but it gets the message across…
‘Good news everyone: we’re going to patch Fez on XBLA. It’s going to take a few months, though. But we’re doing it.”
The company issued a patch to fix save file corruption issues. Unfortunately, this created its own set of problems and had to be rolled back.
They wanted to re-issue a patch for Fez but Microsoft provided them an ultimatum. Either put the patch back online or issue another one, re-certifying the game and paying a ton of money. Polytron simply couldn’t afford Microsoft’s fees and therefore nothing was ever resolved.
As the error only affects a small percentage of players, it wasn’t deemed enough of a priority and Microsoft weren’t willing to be completely flexible in price negotiations to make it happen.
Well, worry no more. It may be late, but Fez will be getting proper patching in the next month or so. Good news, then!
(Via CVG)