Microsoft and developer Polytron plan to re-release the patch for the incredibly buggy Fez, despite the fact that the patch adds a potentially ruinous patch of its own.
As you may or may not remember, fans were dismayed when they found that the patch, which many hoped would fix the game's long list of technical problems, erased players' save data from before the patch was installed. That's kind of a dealbreaker for most, especially when you take into account the fact that Fez basically demands multiple playthroughs.
You may be wondering: "Why are they bringing back this terrible patch?" According to Polytron, it fixes more problems than it solves. The update fixes quite a few technical problems that effect the game's framerate, loading issues, and game-killing bugs that were there before the patch. The save-killing glitch will effect less than one percent of all players.
Lastly, and most importantly for both developer and publisher, creating a patch to fix the bugs in the patch could cost tens of thousands of dollars and take a really long time to build and then get re-certified by Microsoft.
Polytron is quick to point out that the patch would be much more doable for a PC version of the game released on Steam: "Had Fez been released on Steam instead of XBLA," Polytron suggested on their blog, "the game would have been fixed two weeks after release, at no cost to us."
If the suggestion in the post isn't blatant enough, Polytron also tweeted; "but HEY! Only a few weeks left of Xbox exclusivity!" If there was any doubt over whether the game would eventually be coming to the PC, there isn't anymore.
[From Polytron via Joystiq]
