Skip to main content

As ‘Fez’ celebrates its first anniversary, Phil Fish talks Xbox Live sales and the future

FezConsidering how long it took Phil Fish and his few collaborators at Polytron to finish the 2D/3D puzzle adventure Fez, it’s almost shocking that it’s already been a full year since the game came out on Xbox Live Arcade. The game celebrated its first anniversary on Saturday, and Fish discussed the game in an update at Polytron’s website. He also announced some fascinating data for those that have followed Fish’s tumultuous relationship with Microsoft. In the twelve months since it released, the $10 game sold 200,000 copies on the Xbox Live Arcade.

Fez has now sold 200,000 units on XBLA alone,” said Fish, “Which is completely f—ing crazy when you think about it. Thank you!” 

Recommended Videos

Those sales are an interesting measure of a popular indie game’s success on Microsoft’s downloadable game market. Fez had more promotion than most games of its stature. Its prolonged, nearly five-year development was punctuated by award-winning showings at the Game Developers Conference multiple years in a row. It was also one of the main subjects in Indie Game: The Movie. After that exposure the game sold 100,000 over its first six weeks, but was slow to double that figure.

While those numbers are respectable, they are lower than many other high profile indie games. The 2008 and 2010 XBLA stars Braid and Limbo sold 55,000 and 244,000 copies in their respective first weeks on sale. Both went on to sell more than 450,000 and 892,000 copies on Microsoft’s platform. Then there’s the Xbox Live version of Mojang’s Minecraft, which has sold more than 5 million copies on the platform.

Fish alleged last year that Minecraft, however, received preferential treatment from Microsoft. Where Fish opted to not release a second patch for Fez due to the costs of Microsoft’s certification process, Minecraft received a number of updates on the platform free of charge. Fish has sworn off working with Microsoft’s console in the future.

He will now see how well the game sells off of Xbox Live. A Steam edition will be out on May 1, and Fish has also hinted that he’s trying to get the game onto Sony’s surprising indie darling, the PS Vita.

Anthony John Agnello
Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…
How to make copper chests in Minecraft
Copper chests in Minecraft.

Before the last update drop of 2025, copper was kind of useless in Minecraft. We all used to toss away this material since it had so few uses, but now there are some very compelling reasons to hang onto it. The first is to make Copper Golems, a new creature that can help out around your base. But, to give them more value besides their company, you will need to make some copper chests as well. Note that you need to make a Copper Golem before you can get the recipe for a copper chest, which I will explain in detail below.

Read more
Romero Games’ cancelled title might not be dead yet
John Romero

In the wake of Microsoft's layoffs and studio closures last week, rumors circulated that Romero Games — the studio founded by Doom creator John Romero — had also shut down after funding for its still-untitled game was pulled. Those rumors are false, and the studio is still alive and kicking, even if it isn't out of the woods yet.

Romero Games shared an update on its social media accounts late yesterday afternoon that the studio "is not closed, and [they] are doing everything in [their] power to ensure it does not come to that." Perhaps more exciting is the possibility that the cancelled game still has a lifeline.

Read more
The best Zelda dungeons, ranked
Link and Zelda under Hyrule Castle in "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom."

There are a lot of metrics I could use to rank the best Zelda games. I could talk about the best Zelda bosses, the worlds, items, and more, but I believe the dungeons are the biggest individual factor in deciding how each game stacks up to the others. These are the meat of every Zelda game. All the combat and puzzle solving happens here, and the excitement of exploring each one is what pushes us to want to explore these worlds. The boss is the icing on the cake, but a good dungeon can be the highlight of the entire game. Looking back at all Zelda games, I have made some tough calls to bring you a list of the best Zelda dungeons, ranked.

#10 Eagle's Tower - Link's Awakening

Read more