Fez creator Phil Fish is finally on the verge of finishing his epic spat with Microsoft over the expensive price of game patches through XBLA. His popular indie game is finally getting the much needed patch update now that Microsoft is no longer charging top dollar for indie developers to apply them.
Fish took to Twitter to make the announcement, exclaiming proudly, "GOOD NEWS EVERYONE: we're going to patch FEZ on XBLA!" He mentioned that it would take a few months, but the patch was definitely inbound.
Fish and his refusal to patch the game earned him a lot of corn from those whose save files were deleted because of his previous patch, but he has held firm ever since.
The move can only be seen as damage control for Microsoft here as well. One of the many major gripes indie developers had with the Xbox One is the inability to self-publish and expensive prices for patches to fix broken games. Much like everything else, Microsoft caved into demands and announced that they were dropping the fees for the Xbox 360.
Actions speak louder than words on the Internet, so this high profile controversy and confrontation is just the thing Microsoft needs to prove that it is ready to embrace the indie market. That is, if you are willing to still publish on the Xbox 360. No mention of Xbox One fees yet.
It remains to be seen if Phil Fish will be taking the gesture in stride and change his mind about not bringing Fez 2 to the Xbox One. He held out on the patch, so something tells me he has no problem holding out on Microsoft.
