Polytron, the studio of the critically acclaimed indie game, Fez, has officially announced that they are cancelling Fez II. Polytron made the statement over Twitter following founder Phil Fish’s similar message yesterday.
This decision came after Fish and GameTrailers’ Marcus Beer got into an argument on the social media site.
Beer is known for his editorials under the title “Annoyed Gamer”. And during an episode of Invisible Walls, Beer claimed that both Fish and Jonathan Blow (indie developer best known for Braid) were “bitching and moaning” about media requests and only sought publicity when it showed them in a favorable light. He also called Fish a “tosspot”, “wanker”, and a “hipster”.
For Beer, the complaint was centered on Fish’s lack of a response regarding a question on Microsoft’s new policy on independent development on the Xbox One. Beer states,
“Have you seen these wankers bitch and moan—Phil Fish in particular.”
Phil Fish is known for having voicing angry or controversial opinions on the state of the video games, their development, and the industry itself. And after Beer’s statements Fish demanded an on camera apology.
This unfortunately led to an argument via Twitter between the two. It eventually escalated to the point of Fish saying,
“Compare your life to mine and then kill yourself.”
Shortly after this Fish’s account was locked, but not before stating that Fez II is cancelled and that Fish is leaving the industry. Fish states that this decision is not from the blowup with Beer.
After the announcement and confirmation that Fez II is officially cancelled Beer responded with the following,
“I take no pleasure in what has happened today. I am taking all the comments on board, both positive & negative & figuring out what’s next.”
Fez was released last year on the Xbox 360, and later PC, after a long five year development. It received great reviews and was critically and commercially successful. The development of Fez can be seen in last summer’s Indie Game: The Movie.
All that is known of Fez II can be seen in this short teaser trailer .
