Fez developer reposts 'kinda broken' patch with no plans to fix

Fez patch won't be patched on Xbox 360, according to Polytron.

The developer of Xbox Live Arcade game Fez has put the original, "kinda broken," save file-corrupting patch back online, saying that it has no plans to fix the title update. Polytron blames the high cost of re-certifying the patch through Microsoft for the decision.

"We're not going to patch the patch," the developer writes on its official site. "Why not? Because Microsoft would charge us tens of thousands of dollars to re-certify the game."

Polytron says the save file deletion bug happens to less than 1% of players. "We believe the save file corruption issue mostly happened to players who had completed, or almost completed the game," Polytron explains. "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."

"We believe the current patch is safe for an overwhelming majority of players."

"It's a shitty numbers game to be playing for sure," the developer says, "but as a small independent, paying so much money for patches makes NO SENSE AT ALL." Polytron adds that if Fez had been released on Valve's Steam service "the game would have been fixed two weeks after release, at no cost to us." In a follow-up tweet, Polytron writes "HEY! only a few months left to our XBLA exclusivity!"

Polytron writes that Microsoft's considers the issue rare enough that the company considers the patch "good enough." The Fez developer apologized in a blog update to the "less-than-1% who are getting screwed."

Fez was released on Xbox 360 in April. Polytron released a title update in June that addressed issues related to the game's framerate, loading times, and infinite death loops. That patch was also responsible for corrupting save files of some players.