Fez II cancelled, Phil Fish to "take the money and run"

The recently announced sequel to the newly-available-on-PC indie hit Fez has been cancelled. Unveiled only last month, the game is now officially on ice, if the words of its famously combative creative director Phil Fish are to be believed. Writing on the Polytron website, Fish offered a cryptic form of confirmation.

"Fez II is cancelled," the announcement said. "I am done. I take the money and I run. This is as much as I can stomach. This isn't the result of any one thing, but the end of a long, bloody campaign. You win."

While Fish's private account is currently locked, the director initially announced the game's cancellation on Twitter following a heated feud with Gamestrailer journalist Marcus Beer (@AnnoyedGamer), who criticised Fish and Braid designer Jonathan Blow during a recent broadcast. The exchange - which got very nasty - culminated in Fish announcing, among other things, that he intends to leave the games industry altogether.

Fez sold over 100,000 copies during the last Steam sale, which Fish confirmed was more than the game managed to sell in its first month on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Shaun Prescott

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.