How long has Fez been in development? I can remember my pal Sander going all OMFG showing me this video of the thing while we were goofing off at work. That was before I worked here.
Fez, the perspective-switching indie platformer, has wowed gamers for more than four years with its “long postcards” showcasing it’s stylised pixel-art visuals and novel design. It’s also featured in “Indie Game: The Movie”. And it has been repeatedly delayed. So when the Xbox Live Marketplace slaps a May 2 release date on the thing, people damn for sure will notice.
Except that is not the game’s release date.
Joystiq spotted the listing and wrote about it, but that brought Fez creator Phil Fish out to say, nope, May 2 is not the date. He doesn’t know why that’s listed on the Marketplace, but he said the game hasn’t even been certified by Microsoft yet.
The bad news is we still don’t have a release date. The good news is, I guess, it could get here before May 2 although the lack of certification doesn’t make it sound like it’ll be very soon. (Polytron, the game’s studio, said on Feb. 21 that the game has been submitted for certification, however). The ESRB rated Fez at the end of last month, so that shows some hope. Polytron also says “When we said FEZ was coming out in Q1 2012, what we really meant was Q1 of Q2 2012.”
I’m sure Fish probably doesn’t want to get into a pissing match with Microsoft, but I hope someone at Microsoft realises that, considering this game’s history, you don’t just stick a date on Fez and go oops-my-bad later. Also, hurry up and certify the damn thing.
Fez hits XBLA on May 2 [Update: Nope!] [Joystiq]
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