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Five years ago FEZ II was cancelled

cyba89

cyba89

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Oct 25, 2017
4,631
... in two days to be precise

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The Story:
Twitter Blowup Leads to Sudden Cancellation of Fez II - Kotaku

The sequel to one of the best puzzle games of all time that was never meant to be.
And I'm still not entirely over it. :(

After Phil Fish and his company got doxxed a year later he has since been mostly silent but he's been not entirely out of the picture. Just last year he worked on the boot-up screen for the Super NT and did a feature about his GOTYs 2017 on GiantBomb.

Do you still have hope he silently continues working on the game and will just shadow-drop it one day?
 
DocSeuss

DocSeuss

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Oct 25, 2017
1,784
He also DJs a bunch of stuff. I dunno whether or not he's a good DJ tho, but I think he shows up at Double Fine parties or smth.

I'd like to believe he's out there working on Fez 2 but I thought he sold the company?

Fez is one of the best games of all time, even if he was apparently a huge asshole to the people he worked with. I dunno if we should tolerate someone's 'genius' when they're an asshole and there are so many other not-asshole geniuses we could be praising, but yeah, fez is basically a perfect video game, so that's harder than it should be.
 
Bosh

Bosh

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Oct 26, 2017
2,226
Have to imagine one day he will release it. The "blowup" gives him time to make out without having to worry about providing constant updates
 
MattWilsonCSS

MattWilsonCSS

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,349
I think a sequel would have a hard time matching the feelings the initial game engendered. It was really a perfect storm kind of game and should probably stand on its own.

Phil Fish said some pretty dumb shit (including telling a person to kill themselves which is way over the line) but I think his time of exile should be allowed to end, if we actually want him to become a better person and not just stay out of sight out of mind. The only thing is that it was a self-issued exile and if he wants to keep himself away from the internet and social media, I'm not really going to get mad at him about that. I do hope that he's gotten some kind of therapy for his intense anxiety (if you've seen Indie Game the Movie you'd know what I mean).
 
Asbsand

Asbsand

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Oct 30, 2017
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I remember seeing the Invisible Walls episode that led to it before the fallout happened and thinking "Jeeeeeesus, Marcus, what the fuck is he doing???"

Phil Fish was a neurotic and fragile person, and I really do think he overreacted and perpetuated the issue until it became the straw that broke his back, but by all means what Marcus Beer did to instigate the whole issue to begin with was highly uncalled for and embarrassingly unprofessional. (Context: he threw a hissy fit on Gametrailers' podcast about Jonathan Blow and Phil Fish calling them "tosspot" and "fucking hipster", with anger in his tone because of news that Phil and Jon refused an offer by Microsoft like a bunch of self important divas.)

I don't wanna burn him on the stake here, let's not take it there, but I remember just being completely flabbergasted that he allowed it to escalate, and then further by provoking Fish on Twitter after he rightfully called him out for his slander.
 
Faithless

Faithless

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Oct 27, 2017
1,183
I was not aware of the "Fez Pain", I'm so sad, it's a good game and it deserved a sequel. :-(
 
Mesoian

Mesoian

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Oct 28, 2017
26,464
5 years ago, Gamergate chased Phil Fish out of the industry.

That's what the headline should be.
 
Orb

Orb

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Oct 27, 2017
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FEZ is my favorite video game ever, so I have conflicted feelings on a potential sequel. In some ways it's the only potential game I dream of, but in other ways I wonder if it could ever live up to the original for me. I don't know that I would want just another game with FEZ's exact same mechanics in a new world. It would really have to expand on the formula in some way.

Regardless, the FEZ II trailer, despite being just a minute-long teaser, still gets me more hyped than just about any other game trailer I've ever seen.
 
Vire

Vire

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Oct 27, 2017
5,591
Maybe one day it'll come back into the spotlight when we least expect it.
 
Naner

Naner

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Oct 27, 2017
3,017
Fish was a dick, but Fez was - no, is - a fantastic game and him out of the industry is a huge loss.
 

Deleted member 11018

User requested account closure
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Oct 27, 2017
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I loved FEZ, and i remember sending an email to the team to congratulate them on the great time i had with it... it was the first time i did so.

The first game feels complete and enough as it is, i don't really have any hope running.
However, if a sequel arrives, i will play it, that's a sure thing :)
 
I KILL PXLS

I KILL PXLS

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Oct 25, 2017
11,536
Man I totally forgot about this and I was just thinking about Fez a couple days ago. I always assumed this was a temporary "I'm going silent for a while" type of break and then he'd start working on it again, but I guess he was true to his word. Shame.

Side Note: What's Marcus Beer up to nowadays? Haven't heard that name in a long while.
 
Mesoian

Mesoian

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Oct 28, 2017
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moonlightcaptain said:
Stop. Elaborate and I'll listen.
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One of gamergate's huge claims back in the day was that Fez's success was due to collusion from game's journalists, going as far as to say that he had the game's backers rig the IGF awards so Fez would sweep when in actuality, those people weren't even on the voting council. The result of which was a series of organized hate campaigns against him and his company which basically made doing work and living a normal life impossible. Phil Fish's "fuck you I'm out" message was a direct result of gamergate's abuse to his personal life.

But everyone forgot about that...

ArmsofSleep said:
Phil Fish was mainly targeted by angry shitheads yeah, but he was pretty universally reviled by a lot of gamers and journalists. That's like saying Jonathan Blow or Peter Molyneux haven't made games because of GG
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I mean...1.) They ARE making games

2.) You can have journalists not like you and not have your life turned upside down. No one attempted to ruin George Kamitani's life when he had a less than appealing fued with Jason Schier. What happened was pointed and intentional and had nothing to do with games journalism. They went after him because he dared defend Briana Wu, Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn. Full stop.
 
-PXG-

-PXG-

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Oct 25, 2017
6,186
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Fez is a masterpiece. Phil Fish is a genius. I rarely, if ever, give such high praise. I loved every second of that game and devestated there will never be a sequel. I would love to meet Phil one day and tell him personally, how incredible that game is. Everyone should watch Indie Game Dev if they haven't already. It's a fantastic documentary.
 
Camwi

Camwi

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Oct 27, 2017
6,375
I'm happy he's in the shadows. We'd probably be seeing threads about his Twitter explosions at the same rate as the Dumpster Fire in Chief
 
Vire

Vire

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Oct 27, 2017
5,591
All he has to do is just stay out of the public light and release Fez II when it's good and ready. It's been a long enough time that people have since moved on and are hopefully willing to let bygones be bygones.

The dude was too outspoken for things completely unrelated to his game. Saying completely unreasonable, borderline ridiculous things. Just stay out of the controversy and release good products and people will like you.
 
Pancracio17

Pancracio17

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Oct 29, 2017
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Mesoian said:
One of gamergate's huge claims back in the day was that Fez's success was due to collusion from game's journalists, going as far as to say that he had the game's backers rig the IGF awards so Fez would sweep when in actuality, those people weren't even on the voting council. The result of which was a series of organized hate campaigns against him and his company which basically made doing work and living a normal life impossible. Phil Fish's "fuck you I'm out" message was a direct result of gamergate's abuse to his personal life.

But everyone forgot about that...



I mean...1.) They ARE making games

2.) You can have journalists not like you and not have your life turned upside down. No one attempted to ruin George Kamitani's life when he had a less than appealing fued with Jason Schier. What happened was pointed and intentional and had nothing to do with games journalism. They went after him because he dared defend Briana Wu, Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn. Full stop.
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Welp, I didnt know about this.
 
Daysean

Daysean

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Nov 15, 2017
7,392
Damn son, I legit always thought that was a fucking joke, didn't think the dude legit canceled a game because of some twitter shit
 
Nowise10

Nowise10

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Oct 25, 2017
839
I started fez back in the 360 days and was too young and naive to understand what I was doing and stopped playing after a couple hours.

Would love if it came to BC on Xbox One
 
hydrophilic attack

hydrophilic attack

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Oct 25, 2017
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phil fish was great (except for that one "kill yourself" comment)

he was exposed to a lot of the uglier side of gaming, that didn't become widely known to those of us who are not outspoken public figures until gamergate a year or so later
 
Mesoian

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Vire said:
Whose to say abuse will happen again? Just fucking stay off Twitter and release a game.

Such a novel concept.
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Sure, let's just ignore all the shit we see do this day...so we can play the video game.

Christ.

Pancracio17 said:
What the fuck

Isnt it pretty obvious that if you let abuse happen and dont stop it, the abusers will keep doing it? Isnt that what happens literally everytime?
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One of the most impressive things gamergate did posthumously is making everyone forget that gamegate ever happened.
 
Kalor

Kalor

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Oct 25, 2017
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I like to think that he'd just release it one day but it's a shame that he was targeted in the way that he was.

He also did some work on Superhypercube so he's still working on some games.
 
Ayirek

Ayirek

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Oct 27, 2017
4,252
There is a fantastic thought piece on Phil Fish by Innuendo Studios.



I genuinely feel for the guy. He was an abrasive jerk to be sure, but I can't imagine what it would be like dealing with as much shit as he got.
 
Vire

Vire

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Oct 27, 2017
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Mesoian said:
Sure, let's just ignore all the shit we see do this day...so we can play the video game.

Christ.
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Huh? Developers for decades didn't have social media - why is it so harmful to just stay off it and make your art rather than listening to trolls.

That's what he did for the first game. Develop this piece for yourself (Maybe not even Fez II, whatever speaks to him), not for others.

The guy has shown he is incapable of handling himself in a public setting, often exploding into fits over the smallest of things. From the indie game movie:"I'm gonna lose my shit," he says. "I'm gonna—I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna fucking murder that guy and it's going to get everybody in trouble."
 

Deleted member 1627

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Fez is a masterpiece.

The industry is poorer for the lack of Phil Fish.

The Super NT has the best boot up sequence of all time.

The fact we may never see Fez II is a fucking tragedy of epic proportions.

That's all I have to say on the matter.
 
JustinH

JustinH

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Oct 27, 2017
10,398
I KILL PXLS said:
Side Note: What's Marcus Beer up to nowadays? Haven't heard that name in a long while.
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He had a heart attack last year and was recovering for a long while. He did appear on Pachter Factor (Michael Pachter's new show) for the 100th episode (er, 100-104 actually I think) and I was really pleased to see him looking like he was doing well.
 
Log!

Log!

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Oct 27, 2017
1,412
Ayirek said:
There is a fantastic thought piece on Phil Fish by Innuendo Studios.



I genuinely feel for the guy. He was an abrasive jerk to be sure, but I can't imagine what it would be like dealing with as much shit as he got.
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He didn't deserve most of the hate he got, but saying PCs are for spreadsheets as a reason for not releasing Fez on PC and saying Japanese games suck universally didn't earn him fans.
 
KNTomg

KNTomg

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May 18, 2018
266
Yeah Phil talked shit but because he had been doing it before and his sudden popularity didn't make him change. Then again, Marcus Beer could stuck a foot where his mouth is, name-calling indie devs was a very petty way to treat them.
 
mas8705

mas8705

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Oct 27, 2017
5,497
Part of me wonders if Fez would have been seen as a prominent game in the indie scene had Fez 2 came out. It feels like because of the sudden cancellation and how it was suddenly dashed away, it started to feel overshadowed by other games like Shovel Knight. Never did get the chance to play Fez, but I know that alot of good things were said of the game.
 
newgamewhodis

newgamewhodis

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Log! said:
He didn't deserve most of the hate he got, but saying PCs are for spreadsheets as a reason for not releasing Fez on PC and saying Japanese games suck universally didn't earn him fans.
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Sure. But it's not a reason to chase someone out of the industry. Music, film, books - they all have outspoken creatives who aren't chased out for being controversial. Also, he didn't say Japanese games suck universally, he said that the Xbox 360 generation was lacking in great Japanese titles, which is something a lot of people echo when they praise current gen's Yakuzas, Personas, Nier Automatas, FFs, etc. It was a bit of a drought. It's clear from playing FEZ that Fish is a huge fanboy of classic Japanese titles.
 
TemplaerDude

TemplaerDude

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Oct 25, 2017
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Phil Fish has a problem with admitting that he's wrong. It makes him a bit of a dick. If you say dumb shit, own up to it. Don't double down and then take your ball and go home. I'd still like Fez 2 someday but life goes on.
 
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