10 Times Video Game Developers Totally Destroyed Their Own Creations

5. Phil Fish Cancels Fez 2 Amidst Twitter Tirade

Article lead image
Polytron

A sequel to Polytron's initial title, Fez, was announced in June 2013, but mere months later the game was dead in the water. The cancellation followed a fairly spectacular meltdown by developer Phil Fish on Twitter, thanks to an unfavourable presentation he received from journalist Marcus Beer.

After being strongly criticised for ignoring media requests unless they could personally benefit from the news, Fish asked Beer "Do you only feel comfortable assassinating somebody's character from in front of the camera?" as well as suggesting that if Beer compared his life to Fish's, he'd subsequently kill himself.

The exchange remained heated throughout, before Fish tweeted "I f***ing hate this industry", alluding to the constant threat of criticism being a major turn-off in his line of work. He wasn't finished here, however, and later he confirmed the cancellation of Fez 2 with a final tweet (word for word) being:

"im done. FEZ II is canceled. goodbye."

This is perhaps the most spectacular Twitter meltdown to have ever affected the development of an upcoming game, and the outburst even managed to catch the studio themselves off guard. Fish's Twitter bio now simply reads "NEVER TWEET", which may be considered closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Gareth is 28 years old and lives in Cardiff. Interests include film, TV and an unhealthy amount of Spider-Man comics and Killers songs. Expect constant references to the latter two at all times. Follow on twitter @GJCartwright.