How Phil Fish Killed Fez 2 and Possibly His Career

Meh not a big deal for me since FEZ wasn't all that great but jeez this guy has absolutely no class whatsoever.

Apparently Mr. Fish has never heard the old saying "it's not what you say, it's how you say it", which very much applies here. He acts like an arrogant asshole, complains and lashes out when people call him out on it, then gives up, cries and goes 'home' like a baby.
I don't care if he ever comes back. (...song reference totally intended because fuck it.)

When keepin' it real goes wrong

And nothing of value was lost.

Won't be missed. Took forever to release one platformer game and the only reason he's famous is because of Indie movie and being a dick on Twitter.

You're a dick for using that picture zack. Also, what's with that sad lonely fuck lurking the comments?

From what I understand, Game Informer was badgering Phil Fish and Jonathan Blow to comment on the _rumor_ that Microsoft _may_ reverse their policies on Indie self publishing. When they suggested that it's a bad idea to ask people who are completely uninvolved with Microsoft instead of going to the source itself, a lot of the press got pissed. Shit was thrown on both sides and apparently Phil Fish had enough. I can't say I blame him.

Gaming journalism isn't any less unbiased or less sensationalist than our (US) TV news. This was part of a long line of almost tabloid worthy reactionary reporting done by internet gaming sites. Should Phil have reacted in the way he did? No, he probably shouldn't have. I think people lose touch when interacting with others over the internet (on the sides giving Phil shit and on Phil's interpretation of the hate received). Saying "Fez was shit" is just an opinion, not a statement of fact (people don't often understand this). And conversely saying it was good is also *just* an opinion.

It's a sad day to lose a talented (while controversial) developer like Phil Fish. Hopefully the indie devs AND journalists learn something from this. Devs aren't at the beck and call of journalists to respond positively to their probings. Journalists aren't obligated to developers when covering their games. In the end, both sides are held responsible by their audience and not each other.

It seems like both men acted rather unprofessional and childish about this. I'd like to think that maybe one day, the gaming world will grow up. But then things like this happen.

Good riddance.

lol twitter.

Phil Fish is an idiot for having gotten this far and not learning to keep his mouth shut. Great designer, very creative, lacking social graces. It was a while back because of all of his ridiculously offensive comments that I wrote him off as someone I didn't want to support. The "compare your life to mine then kill yourself" is my final straw. Don't care how pissed you are in a childish twitter fight, nobody has the right to tell someone to kill themselves. Not even in mid hissy fit.

Too much to say in one comment about games journalism. There are about three games journalism sites. Same for all around journalism. It's in a very sad state.

That escalated a lot more quickly than I had hoped. I didn't play Fez, but I watched Indie Game: The Movie so I'm kinda sad that this happened.

As dumb as it is with Phil deciding to be an idiot about it cancelling the game, i can't say i see this Annoyedgamer being any better.

Seems like nothing more than dumb prepubertal bullshit thrown out just to please the dumb mob. Then he gets praised for being so "edgy"

3edgy5me peeeps

I think everyone saying "good riddance" is spot on. If I were an entrepreneur running my own business for nearly any other product and I acted that way: I'd deserve to be bitter and broke. You need to build up good will - it's really business 101, and making video games IS big business. It's a slice of an X billion dollar industry which brings in more than movies. (Not looking it up, too hungover.) Anybody that doesn't really understand why "small town" business rules apply so much on social media (word of mouth and public image being some of the most effective/destructive tools available), will not find success. They will fail with the younger generations (because bad news travels fast) and I think in this case: He deserves as much.

Thanks for the great reporting Zach - I hadn't seen the full Twitter capture previous to this post. Another thing I've noticed is I haven't seen any sort of reaction from J-Blow about this despite the fact he was targeted as well. Did he handle it professionally and brush off the criticism? Did he instead choose to be apologetic and grant merit that he did indeed deny an outlet a response? If he did I think the contrast in their reactions should also help be indicative of their ongoing success.

You know you're a petulant little shit when you can't handle having a twitter account.

See, my opinion on this is that artists are allowed to be crazy all they want if they make interesting stuff, it never really bothered me when he was ranting on twitter. Like Orson Scott Card is crazy and a complete jerk, but I still really like Ender's Game. Van Gogh cut off his ear. You've got to be at least a little crazy to be creative. And I'd probably be just as mad as he is in a lot of these cases. Hope he doesn't actually cancel the game.

I'm with what Soha said in her recent article, that really it boils down to everyone having enough respect for one another, and the industry itself, to know bullshit when we see it and refuse to tolerate it from any source.
Dev's need to treat their public with enough respect to know when to say certain things, and when to keep quiet. Journalists have the admittedly awkward position of having to get the facts and entertain the public with their knowhow, but they should also be truthful and tactful enough not to incur legal, or at least socially catastrophic consequences.
But I think Soha has a point in that the most important job lies with us as the gamers, the consumers, the vast majority of people 'in' this industry, to have a bit more respect for everyone else; gamers journalists and dev's alike just as a few examples. Enough respect at least to stop and think 'Maybe I shouldn't run my mouth about this or spread this news before knowing all the facts and strengthening my own opinion rationally'. But also having the courage to stand up for what gaming should be about, to not tolerate mudslinging or underhanded tactics, and act against it with passion and professionalism. Of course it's hard to misunderstand tweets like 'compare your life to mine and then kill yourself', but it's also important to bare in mind that some journalists will be biased, some questions will be loaded, and some dev's will do anything to keep being talked about.

"Beer tore into the designers for asking for the support of gaming press but thumbing their noses at the press when asked their opinion."

Then I presume Beer had chapter and verse on every time Blow and Fish personally asked him for his support? If not then far from being a fair point it smells like a bullshit excuse for Beer to lash out at them because they wouldn't give him a nice quote to make his easy lazy opinion article for clicks. But he's got his clicks now so it all worked out in the end, at least for him and his site. And isn't that what matter most? :P

Here's the thing, Fish might not be the most tactful person in the world but it's not as if he's calling himself Carlos Danger and tweeting pictures of his dick while asking people to vote for him. He makes games and he does it well. This may come as a shock to some people but I somehow doubt Fish is the only game Dev who can be a bit opinionated and combative or sometimes even an outright asshole. The difference is that the indie Devs don't have a squad of pubic relations drones on the payroll as Bob says. The big publishers do and that's how they keep the gaming sites sweet with prepackaged quotes, swag, exclusive looks, days out, demos etc.

There is very, very little actual journalism on game sites. It's mostly PR backscatching on both sides spiced up with rumours and hype. Real journalism costs money time and effort and is just a wee bit more focused on fact than opinion.

That isn't to say all game sites are a waste of time because you can find some that aren't totally beholden to the publishers and the console makers or an outlet for sensationalist rumours. I would consider 4PN to be one of them and you can find some others on youtube and elsewhere. There's also no shortage of absolutely terrible gaming sites and youtubers. What there isn't is an abundance of indie Devs who can make surprising entertaining games instead of the endless big budget sequels and minor iterations on dude bro games.

Would've been best for Phil to just let that episode blow over. But as seen in the past, he's more than willing to toss insults or act like a "tosspot" at others, but has problems with the slightest problem.

From what I've seen and played though, Fez is pretty damn buggy to boot so that's already a point off from me in terms of game development.

While Phil is a giant bag filled with puss I am very sad to hear that his hissy fit has most likely caused us not to get FEZ 2. I enjoyed FEZ greatly and it is sad to see that a talented developer has to stop working because he cannot handle his temper.
In this argument specifically both are being dicks though. One for being an inflammatory cunt and the other for going out of his way to insult said cunt just to get buzz around a website.

Fish seems to have the mental age of a 5 year old. He will come crawling back as his money dries up. He needs to grow a pair.

It's kind of funny. I watched the new extended Indie Game The Movie a few days ago where both Tommy Refenes and Edmund McMillen talk about how they try to stay away from the internet because of things like this.

Phil Fish shoul'dve taken a page out of their book.

I can agree that Fish isn't exactly an emotionally stable or the most capable person. But why are we not taking to what Beer said into offense? He practically threw any sort of professionalism in his career to attack an easy target for publicity. Was Fish's reaction appropriate? No. I think it was a like a ridiculous tantrum from a child. But that's hardly anything new and some messed up things have happened to him.

And Beer certainly didn't act the way he should have either. I mean really, he starts cussing his heart out over a few measly indie devs who didn't feed him info? He practically tells the world to just fuck them over as if journalism should be told the truth constantly on a silver platter. Fish was unbelievably stupid but Beer was just as blatantly outrageous. Over this stupid fight, he was easily the unneeded trigger for this whole incident.

Both sides have faults. But I'm confused as to why everyone is only picking at Fish's behavior. Or rather his game for that matter even though it's not directly involved with the argument. Unlike most people, I thought Fez wasn't that bad of a game. Not a great game. Just an acceptable game which is still an accomplishment. Fish is still an unbelievable rager but I think we can add Beer to that list.

I can agree that Fish isn't exactly an emotionally stable or the most capable person. But why are we not taking to what Beer said into offense? He practically threw any sort of professionalism in his career to attack an easy target for publicity. Was Fish's reaction appropriate? No. I think it was a like a ridiculous tantrum from a child. But that's hardly anything new and some messed up things have happened to him.

And Beer certainly didn't act the way he should have either. I mean really, he starts cussing his heart out over what you call "nobodies" who didn't feed him info? He practically tells the world to just fuck them over as if journalism should be told the truth constantly on a silver platter. Fish was unbelievably stupid but Beer was just as blatantly outrageous. Over this stupid fight, he was easily the unneeded trigger for this whole incident.

Both sides have faults. But I'm confused as to why everyone is only picking at Fish's behavior. Or rather his game for that matter even though it's not directly involved with the argument. Unlike most people, I thought Fez wasn't that bad of a game. Not a great game. Just an acceptable game which is still an accomplishment. Fish is still a over-the-top rager but I think we can add Beer to that list as well.

He may be imature and not know when to shut up but I liked the guy after seeing him on giant bomb and in the indie movie. Must of sucked to be labeled and harassed by the internet like he was. Its a shame he couldn't of just ignored it though.

This is a lie.