Polytron—developer of indie title Fez—has announced that it will not release a patch for the game due to the cost involved with creating one.
The Xbox Live Arcade game was released in April and garnered warm reviews. There is a game-breaking bug in the game however, which may corrupt the save files of players. Polytron does not wish to create a patch though, because according to the studio the bug currently affects “less than 1% of players.”
The deciding factor in this decision was Microsoft, according to Polytron “Microsoft would charge us tens of thousands of dollars to re-certify the game,” claims Polytron. “Had Fez been released on Steam instead of Xbox Live Arcade, the game would have been fixed two weeks after release, at no cost to us. And if there were an issue with the patch, we could have fixed that right away too.”
Polytron addressed their dislike with the current situation. In regards to the 1% of players it is reportedly affecting, Polytron says: “It’s a shi%&y numbers game to be playing for sure, but as a small independent, paying so much money for patches makes no sense at all.”
The studio also explained that the save file corruption that occurs from the bug “mostly happened to players who had completed, or almost completed the game.”
Polytron will now reissue their original patch, which was originally pulled because of the save file issue. The studio closed off by saying “To the less than 1% who are getting screwed, we sincerely apologize.”
(Via Computer and Video Games)