Save corrupting Fez patch back online

Fez developer Polytron has decided to re-issue the buggy patch that corrupted some player's save files.

Why? Because fixing it would require the very costly process of getting the game re-certified.

"Microsoft would charge us tens of thousands of dollars to re-certify the game," the studio wrote on its blog.

Polytron explained that unfortunate as the situation is, it was the only choice that made sense given the circumstances. "The save file delete bug only happens to less than a percent of players. It's a shitty numbers game to be playing for sure, but as a small independent, paying so much money for patches makes no sense at all, especially when you consider the alternative."

The outspoken developer praised Steam, explaining that the PC platform's model would have alleviated the problem. "Had Fez been released on Steam instead of XBLA, the game would have been fixed two weeks after release, at no cost to us. And if there was an issue with that patch, we could have fixed that right away too!"

Still, Polytron is grateful towards Microsoft for the chance to publish on its platform. "We already owe Microsoft a lot of money for the privilege of being on their platform. People often mistakenly believe that we got paid by Microsoft for being exclusive to their platform. Nothing could be further from the truth. We pay them."

Despite the patch corrupting some saves, Polytron explained that this is a rare occurrence and the patched version is still better than the unpatched one in almost every way.

"The patch fixes almost everything that's been wrong with the game since launch. The framerate issues, the loading, the skips, the death loops, everything! All that stuff is fixed! And right now, nobody can get to it since the patch was pulled. For 99 per cent of people, it makes Fez a better game."

"We believe the save file corruption issue mostly happened to players who had completed, or almost completed the game. If you hadn't already seen most of what Fez had to offer, your save file is probably safe. It doesn't happen if you start a new game."

"To the less-than-one per cent who are getting screwed, we sincerely apologize. We know this hurts you the most, because you're the ones who put the most times into the game. And this breaks our hearts. We hope you don't think back on your time spent in Fez as a total waste."