Overview
Fez II Cancellation refers to the abandonment of the game Fez II by game developer Phil Fish following a public argument on the microblogging and social networking site Twitter in July of 2013.
Background
On July 26th, 2013, Marcus Beer appeared in an episode of the web show Invisible Walls in which he criticized game developers Phil Fish and Jon Blow for refusing to respond to the gaming magazine Game Informer about rumors that the Xbox One will allow indie developers to self-publish (shown below).
Notable Developments
Twitter Feud
On the following day, Fish retaliated against Beer on Twitter for the remarks he made on Invisible Walls and even urged him to commit suicide.
AnnoyedGamer</a> hey fuckface. the thing with us "tosspots" "hipsters" is that we're not beholden to media leeches like you.</p>— PHIL FISH (PHIL_FISH) July 27, 2013
@AnnoyedGamer and you're right. we're VERY successful. and we're not going anywhere. get used to it you middle-aged parasite.
— PHILFISH (@PHIL_FISH) July 27, 2013
@AnnoyedGamer compare your life to mine and then kill yourself.
— PHILFISH (@PHIL_FISH) July 27, 2013
Fish also claimed that he had refused to answer questions about indie publishing on the Xbox One because he was waiting for “actual news to come out” before commenting on the rumors.
AnnoyedGamer</a> plus your beef with me wasn't even accurate. i wasn't snubbing journalist, i was waiting for the actual news to come out.</p>— PHIL FISH (PHIL_FISH) July 27, 2013
That day, “Phil Fish” became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, with over 9,100 mentions at its peak according to the Twitter analytics site Topsy.[9]
Cancellation
After posting the barrage of tweets directed at Beer, Fish tweeted that he was cancelling the game Fez II and subsequently posted the announcement on the Polytron Corporation[1] website.
im done. FEZ II is canceled. goodbye.
— PHILFISH (@PHIL_FISH) July 27, 2013
The same day, Fish posted a follow-up tweet revealing that he was cancelling Fez II in order to retire from the video game industry.
to be clear, im not cancelling FEZ II because some boorish fuck said something stupid, im doing it to get out of games.
— PHILFISH (@PHIL_FISH) July 27, 2013
Blog Coverage
In the coming days, several gaming blogs and news sites reported on the Twitter feud and game cancellation, including Kotaku,[2] Yahoo,[3]CNET,[4] Forbes,[5] Game Skinny,[6] Games Radar[8] and Destructoid.[7]
Search Interest
External References
[1]Polytron Corporation – Fez II Cancelled
[2]Kotaku – Twitter Blowup Leads to Sudden Cancellation of Fez II
[3]Yahoo – Fez 2 cancelled
[4]CNET– Fez II cancelled after Twitter spat
[5]Forbes – Fez II Cancelled Developer Leaving Industry
[6]Game Skinny – Cliff Bleszinkski Defends Phil Fish
[7]Destructoid – Phil Fish has meltdown on Twitter, rashly cancels FEZ II
[8]Games Radar – Fez 2 cancelled