Fez

Back in May we reported that Polytron had sent their first patch for mind-bending puzzle-platformer Fez to certification. The update was set to rectify many issues that had popped up after the games release, such as frame-rate dips and crashing. Unfortunately a couple of problems caused the update to fail cert and it was sent back to Polytron, who then ran into their own issues trying to reproduce the error. Thankfully those have finally been resolved the the update is now back in cert, meaning it should hopefully appear in a few weeks. You can find the full Facebook post about the issue below, if you’d like just a little more detail from the developer themselves.

If you haven’t already checked out Fez then have a read of our review to find out why you should, and if you get stuck you can always use our handy guide.

Source: Polytron’s Facebook page Read More

Weekly Roundup compiles all the biggest news stories, reviews, and releases from the week into one handy post on the weekends.

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Before we go marching on into the land of statistics… Yes the following figures are based on leaderboard data. No it’s not entirely accurate. It is, however, the best barometer we have. Onward!

It’s been a fine two months. We’ve seen the likes of Trials Evolution and Minecraft shatter records, Fez and The Walking Dead revitalise dusty genres and titles like Skullgirls and The Pinball Arcade bolstering genres with an already strong showing on XBLA. Not to mention Fable: Heroes, The Splatters and Anomaly Warzone Earth rounding out a special 8 weeks.

Rewind a little to April and actual sales data isn’t quite as cheery, at least not across the board. As usual, Gamasutra has the full rundown.

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Fez, the dimension-shifting platformer from Phil Fish and co. at Polytron has sold over 100,000 copies to date. Polytron released the announcement today in a great little picture on …
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Developer Polytron has handed the first patch of platformer Fez off to Microsoft for certification. The studio promised that the update will mean “crash fixes, recovered save files …
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Mined some Crafts and then some.
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Update: Polytron, following up on Mojang’s reporting of Minecraft figures based off of Xbox Live leaderboards, tapped Microsoft on the shoulder and questioned them as to whether or not the leaderboards are a legitimate gauge for sales numbers. As it turns out, just as the Fez developer had earlier alleged, they are not. “Hey so, Microsoft got back to us about sale[s] figures,” the studio tweeted. “Turns out the leaderboards ARE inaccurate!”

Quickly following that news was another statement by the dev elucidating that Microsoft showed no favoritism towards Mojang in terms of handing out sales data. But that doesn’t mean the studio believes the entire playing field is even. Earlier, Polytron expressed its discontent over Minecraft being granted the ability to receive free post-release content. Sticking to its guns, Polytron stated that favoritism was shown by the publisher in the way of “the free updates.”

Still, Poly, in a tweet directed at the media, called upon caps lock to underscore its belief that Microsoft’s actions were “NOT A SCANDAL.” It should also be noted that Polytron extended public congratulations to Markus Persson for having a successful launch on XBLA. Further details can be found in the primary story below.

Original Story: An hour was all it took. Within 60 minutes of Swedish developer Mojang’s XBLA port of its mega-popular PC world-building title Minecraft releasing yesterday, a profit had been turned. Studio owner Markus “Notch” Persson relayed the news over Twitter earlier today: “Well then. Saw the official sales numbers for the first 24 hours of Minecraft Xbox 360, and it’s very, very good. Profitable in an hour.”

After selling in excess of five million copies to date over on the PC, according to IGN, Minecraft managed to smash “all previous digital sales records” on the Xbox 360, Microsoft revealed in a statement that surfaced shortly after Persson’s tweet. Microsoft, who published the Arcade version of the game, said that no other release in the history of the platform had garnered as many sales as Mojang’s debut effort did in its first 24 hours of availability. The publisher declined, however, to identify just how many individual sales that record equated to.

Yet not everyone was silent on that matter. After having some public discussion over Microsoft’s policies regarding the divulging of precise sales numbers with Fez developer Polytron, Persson gave a ballpark figure. “It seems it sold over 400k copies in 24 [hours],” he tweeted. The creative brain behind Minecraft apparently had to rely on leaderboard participation in order to extrapolate that number, a method which he admitted “might be off.” If his calculations are correct, that would mean the port, developed in part by 4J Studios, has already brought in more than $8 million USD in revenue.

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You know those songs you come across in a game sometimes that are so good that you find a safe spot, put the controller down and just listen to the music? Those moments where you completely forget what you are doing while you are mesmerized by the melody? Well that’s what this list is dedicated to. Those moments in gaming where the music captures your attention and your imagination. Moments of music so good, you wish the level would never end. Music so captivating that you hum these songs to yourself for days, weeks, months or years later. These are the top five in-game songs in XBLA.

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What we are playing is a weekly column published on Sunday. Select members of the team talk about the games they’ve been playing over the past week and which they’re …
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The regular crew of four gets back together for the first time in a few weeks, and as such it’s a bit of a bumper episode. We kick things off with Perry telling us about Bloodforge, he has some mixed feelings about it. Then it’s onto this little game that came out last week, you might have heard about it, Trials Evolution. We briefly talk about Fez again but there’s not too much new to say on that front.

Perry brings all the news as usual, then Todd Talk is more like a question than a discussion. Andrew rounds things out with twitter questions and the remember the days game, this weeks game is Heavy Weapon, you’ve got two weeks to try it out and let use know what you think!

Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast on iTunes. We appreciate it! Check us out on twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question. We are also now on Stitcher, so you can stream the show on your smartphone, give it a go!

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

[podcast]https://xblafans.com/xblafancast/XBLAFancastEp58.mp3[/podcast]

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