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[poodaddy]

I don't Phil was canceled really, it's just people got sick of seeing his disgusting face that always looked like he smelled a fart and hearing his inane ramblings. Dude was just an annoying prick.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

He acted like a twat, people called him a twat. People didn't magnify a minor indiscretion that happened in private and try to ruin his life over it.

 

[oagboghi2]

He is the opposite of cancel culture, and he deserved everything he got.



A lot of people forget, but during the 360 / PS3 generation, Japanese games almost got pushed out. The whole media was working together with large western developers to put down Japanese games, to minimize anything they did right, and to push them out of the industry for being archaic and inferior. If anything, Japanese games were at risk of being canceled. Fish not only didn't get canceled, but got hugely elevated far beyond his ability or standing in the industry by a media machine obsessed with western indie developers that dress like them and can be friends with journalists. Consumers of Japanese games were just disgusted by his behavior and didn't want to continue to support a giant asshole and bully. Fish later went on to try and push other people out of the industry for criticizing Zoe Quinn and pointing out that she was abusive. The guy partially made one NES game and acted like he could put down all Japanese games, and like a lot of elements of gaming culture at that time that were explicitly anti-Japanese, I think his actions and generalizations were almost racist. I think the year he was saying all Japanese games suck, Mario Galaxy came out.

Pretty much this. He was an asshole, high on his own ego, but he was just riding on a wave of media created hype about the rise of western indie games, especially on xbox live arcade.

Everyone spoke down to japanese games, and remnants of that shitty attitude can still be seen occasionally.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Huh? That dude chose to leave the games industry and was never "cancelled" by anyone.

He's an asshole.. is the media not supposed to point out he could be an asshole?

 

[Enjay]

Nah he wasn't canceled he threw a fit and quit over getting himself doxxed. He was pretty spot on in his japanese comment at the time.

 

[oagboghi2]

Nah he wasn't canceled he threw a fit and quit over getting himself doxxed. He was pretty spot on in his japanese comment at the time.

No he wasn't

 

[iconmaster]

I think it could only be considered “cancelled” if it was a reaction to Phil’s opinion – that Japanese games are bad. There’s nothing beyond the pale about that opinion, though. I could express it on social media or in the workplace and expect serious disagreement, but not career consequences.

Phil’s problem was the manner of his discourse, not the content.

 

[CrustyBritches]

I can really only remember him from Indie Game: The Movie. They featured a handful of indie devs that blew up during the XBLA era. They covered Super Meat Boy, Fez, and Braid. My impression was that Phil was spastic and angry-autistic. I don't think he was well-equipped to deal with the public relations, or any relations, side of things.

 

[butane bob]

He could dish it out but he couldn't take it. You don't go out of your way to pick fights with the internet and expect them not to throw 1000 times more shit back at you. No one "cancelled" him, whatever that means. He threw a tantrum and quit.

Glad I never played his game(s).

That's just stupid. Fez was a fantastic game, no question. Ignore twitter and seperate the art from the artist or you'll never enjoy anything.

 

[Fuz]

Astonishing how you people seem not to remember much about the whole story. The comments on japanese games were only a minor thing. He was acting like an asshole left and right and he reaped what he sow.

 

[Vae_Victis]

He was not cancelled, he literally ragequit his developer job in a tantrum fit over a Twitter argument.

After the nth time he, unprovoked, said something particularly crass and retarded, a GameTrailers journalist called him out on his continuous gaffes and strongly suggested him to hire some PR person to keep him from ruining his own reputation and career and that of his studio. Fish of course failed to take any constructive criticism and reacted by being his usual arrogant dick on Twitter with the journalist, then more people intervened and sided against him, and his final message was something to the effect of "OK, fuck all of you then, Fez 2 is cancelled and I'm out of the gaming industry forever".

If memory serves me right, BTW, in all of this he didn't even talk or consult with the rest of his team, which he literally left on their own overnight to figure out what the hell to do.

There could be more to be said, like the fact that he very likely basically stole the whole concept of Fez from another guy, or that later on evidence surfaced that some indie awards he had wan were probably the result of collusion (with friends and "allied" of his guiding the jury). But it's been years, I don't think it's useful to anybody to go and dig up all of the shit surrounding him, and in all honesty the gaming industry is much better off without people like him in the spotlight.

 

[mikefrails]

There was a new push to shit on Japanese gaming and I'm not sure where it came from. R-Era is big on this.

Edit, this post explains it:

He is the opposite of cancel culture, and he deserved everything he got.



A lot of people forget, but during the 360 / PS3 generation, Japanese games almost got pushed out. The whole media was working together with large western developers to put down Japanese games, to minimize anything they did right, and to push them out of the industry for being archaic and inferior. If anything, Japanese games were at risk of being canceled. Fish not only didn't get canceled, but got hugely elevated far beyond his ability or standing in the industry by a media machine obsessed with western indie developers that dress like them and can be friends with journalists. Consumers of Japanese games were just disgusted by his behavior and didn't want to continue to support a giant asshole and bully. Fish later went on to try and push other people out of the industry for criticizing Zoe Quinn and pointing out that she was abusive. The guy partially made one NES game and acted like he could put down all Japanese games, and like a lot of elements of gaming culture at that time that were explicitly anti-Japanese, I think his actions and generalizations were almost racist. I think the year he was saying all Japanese games suck, Mario Galaxy came out.

 

[renzolama]

Yes

 

[diffusionx]

Phil Fish is a cunt who decided to take his ball and go home, There was no campaign against him, he was just a beta who couldn't take the bants.

A lot of people, myself included, actually really liked Fez 1 despite the fact that this cunt made it. Nobody tried to get him to cancel Fez 2 and stop making games altogether.

 

[Killer8]

He was 100% correct if you placed his statements in the context of the time (2012). The Japanese output was terrible last gen:

- many beloved series and developers jumped onto the mobile/gacha bandwagon (and many still haven't jumped off).
- Konami are basically dead as a result of said decisions
- several top JP franchises either disappointed or went to shit: Silent Hill, Gran Turismo 5, Resident Evil 6, Metal Gear Solid 4 (in retrospect), Final Fantasy XIII and XIV (at launch).
- some tried to ape Western games with disastrous results (Koei Tecmo's Quantum Theory), or even outsourced beloved games to Western studios (Capcom - Bionic Commando, Lost Planet 3, DmC)
- Nintendo were having a creativity crisis following DS and Wii. Everyone forgets 3DS seriously struggled in its first year (2011-12), while the Wii U was by most accounts a complete failure
- even the good ones like Capcom, who released many good games at the start of the generation, got progressively worse by 2012
- just look at the lists of games released in the early 2010s and try to count the anemic number of JP games in the top 20 lists


Fast forward to 2020 and things have flipped. Most of the good stuff is coming out of Japan now.

 

[bender]

He was 100% correct if you placed his statements in the context of the time (2012). The Japanese output was terrible last gen:

- many beloved series and developers jumped onto the mobile/gacha bandwagon (and many still haven't jumped off).
- Konami are basically dead as a result of said decisions
- several top JP franchises either disappointed or went to shit: Silent Hill, Gran Turismo 5, Resident Evil 6, Metal Gear Solid 4 (in retrospect), Final Fantasy XIII and XIV (at launch).
- some tried to ape Western games with disastrous results (Koei Tecmo's Quantum Theory), or even outsourced beloved games to Western studios (Capcom - Bionic Commando, Lost Planet 3, DmC)
- Nintendo were having a creativity crisis following DS and Wii. Everyone forgets 3DS seriously struggled in its first year (2011-12), while the Wii U was by most accounts a complete failure
- even the good ones like Capcom, who released many good games at the start of the generation, got progressively worse by 2012
- just look at the lists of games released in the early 2010s and try to count the anemic number of JP games in the top 20 lists


Fast forward to 2020 and things have flipped. Most of the good stuff is coming out of Japan now.

He can be right but it still wasn't the appropriate time or place for the diatribe. Expecting tact from Phil is a fools errand though. He certainly never enjoyed the taste of his own medicine.

 

[Dane]

1 - the guy clearly has issues, he is some kind of crazy genius guy
2 - he definitely was cancelled for his take on the stare of japanese games development (if I. Remember well), he obviously made his comments from a good place, and the backlash felt forced back then

So, I think you're right about that .

Didn't he ragequit over gamergate and cancelled Fez 2?

 

[Saruhashi]

Title.

Phil Fish ain't the most polite character, but I enjoyed the two games he made, Fez and Super Hyper Cube. He did have a Cliffy B-esque habit of threatening to leave gaming and to never release his projects, a promise he appears to be keeping for now.

Not sure what people think of the guy. My interest is whether he was an early example of "cancel culture" mob going after someone because of something they said. He wasn't cancelled for making a bad videogame, but for his comments and behavior elsewhere.

I tend to think he was a victim of the trend of seeing indie devs as some kind of rock star celebrities and he was elevated to a status he didn't deserve and couldn't handle.

His attitude when cancelling Fez 2 just looks like saving face and blaming the mob because he probably realised he couldn't replicate or build on his success. Like as if the obvious alternative wasn't to just delete Twitter, keep the head down, make your game and then reap the plaudits.

He was definitely harassed and ultimately kind of cancelled but that really came out if this dumb idea of putting him out there as a superstar indie dev and then watching as he makes and arse of himself, antagonises the Internet and then melts down. Causing his sequel game to just never get made.

Compare to what happened with Sean Murray and No Man's Sky. Very similar thing with the lad being put out there and treated like a game developer superstar but Murray got his head down and salvaged his game.

I would say Sean Murray received many magnitudes more grief than Fish ever did and from all sections of the gaming industry and community. Yet he just handled it and got on with things.

 

[YCoCg]

How was it cancel culture when he nuked himself during GamerGate after going on a rampage about how disgusting gamers are after doxing Zoey Quinn, and then cancelling FEZ 2 because gamers didn't deserve it.

 

[Killer8]

He can be right but it still wasn't the appropriate time or place for the diatribe. Expecting tact from Phil is a fools errand though. He certainly never enjoyed the taste of his own medicine.

Tact has been dead since about 2015. His comments might have been offensive by 2012 standards, but by today's standards set by Twitter, Trump, 4chan etc, it's incredibly tame looking back.

Once you get over the zinger of "you're games just suck", all of the subsequent feedback given by the panel are exactly the things Japanese developers ended up listening to. Breath of the Wild is almost exactly what they said should have been done with Zelda.

Now, I very much doubt that Japan only got its shit together this gen because a pretentious leaf told them what's what. Fish and Blow aren't gods, even if they think themselves that. Rather, the writing was on the wall for Japan to such a degree that even this random panel of indies could pinpoint all it's problems.

 

[Pumpkin Seeds]

Phil had Andy Kaufman as his avatar and liked to fuck with the public.

He could come back into public life if he wanted, but I think he liked the vanishing act.

 

[supernova8]

Title.

Phil Fish ain't the most polite character, but I enjoyed the two games he made, Fez and Super Hyper Cube. He did have a Cliffy B-esque habit of threatening to leave gaming and to never release his projects, a promise he appears to be keeping for now.

Not sure what people think of the guy. My interest is whether he was an early example of "cancel culture" mob going after someone because of something they said. He wasn't cancelled for making a bad videogame, but for his comments and behavior elsewhere.

I'm not really up to date on what happened/what he said, could you add some context in OP for people like me who don't know what this thread is about? I do vaguely remember his game.. there was a mini documentary about it right?

 

[supernova8]

Tact has been dead since about 2015. His comments might have been offensive by 2012 standards, but by today's standards set by Twitter, Trump, 4chan etc, it's incredibly tame looking back.

Once you get over the zinger of "you're games just suck", all of the subsequent feedback given by the panel are exactly the things Japanese developers ended up listening to. Breath of the Wild is almost exactly what they said should have been done with Zelda.

Now, I very much doubt that Japan only got its shit together this gen because a pretentious leaf told them what's what. Fish and Blow aren't gods, even if they think themselves that. Rather, the writing was on the wall for Japan to such a degree that even this random panel of indies could pinpoint all it's problems.

With my Japan PSN account I regularly download demos for a wide variety of Japanese games. I would certainly agree that the majority of games coming from Japanese developers are absolute garbage. They're stuck on old game engines, obtuse gameplay mechanics with no explanation (no not a language issue), pointlessly long dialogue sequences, zero effort in terms of animating characters and their movement/attacks.

It's not necessarily that Japanese developers are shit but more that a lot of the shit that nobody would dream of buying in the West (in terms of production value) somehow gets bought in Japan (otherwise they wouldn't keep making them).

 

[jaysius]

If you watched that documentary he was in this guy was a real turd. The reason Fez was a buggy AF nightmare trainwreck was because he didn’t make it himself, he bought it from the guy he was working with and Fish did minimal work with and tried to make it work on his own.

At one point in the movie he utters very real death threats to the guy on camera when the guy was refusing to give up his huge chunk of the game.

He got all the credit for Fez but everyone has rose tinted glasses for all the bugs that game had. There was one that deleted your save, no not a clever Metal Gear moment(it had 1 or 2 of those) a huge fucking bug.

The real reason he didn’t make Fez 2 was that he wasn’t the genius coder or primary developer, he couldn’t make anything like Fez on his own.

Also he said dumb shit because he had the belief that he didn’t need to pay someone to filter his arrested development autistic mouth.

 

[Umbral]

I don’t know much about the guy, but I tend to like people with “fuck you” attitudes.

 

[Hendrick's]

Have you actually seen the video of it?

It’s been a long time since I have, but if I remember correctly it was him having a mental breakdown because he was getting harassed by losers on the internet.

 

[Megatron]

I can’t believe Fez isn’t on the Switch, that’s idiotic.

 

[godhandiscen]

I didn’t really pay much attention to him. I remember him being edgy. If anybody skipped Fez because they perceived Phil Phish as a jerk, they did themselves a massive disservice. The game was amazing.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

He just had strong opinions, which you are not supposed to have the more famous you get.

Most people here on this forum would crash and burn the same way Phil did if they spoke out loudly what they write here every day.

Just ask yourself how easy it is online to say "FUCK YOU" somebody who is famous.
Now, can that famous person say "FUCK YOU TOO" to you in reply?

No, they always have to stay polite and non controversial, or they are perceived as "dick heads" and "arrogant".

 

[NinjaBoiX]

I dunno, he seemed like a bit of a tool but it’s not like he touched kids.

And Fez was pretty lame and dull for my money, *shrugs*

The whole saga on both sides of the coin was totally overblown IMO, both the game and the resulting controversy were worth nobody’s time.

Edit: also, what Stifler said above. “OMG, he was such a cunt!” Was he though, when you really stop and think about it?

 

[Punished Miku]

He just had strong opinions, which you are not supposed to have the more famous you get.

Most people here on this forum would crash and burn the same way Phil did if they spoke out loudly what they write here every day.

Just ask yourself how easy it is online to say "FUCK YOU" somebody who is famous.
Now, can that famous person say "FUCK YOU TOO" to you in reply?

No, they always have to stay polite and non controversial, or they are perceived as "dick heads" and "arrogant".

It wasn't that hard. I've never been at a public work conference and gone out of my way to humiliate and insult someone complimenting my work. Any normal human could have answered normally, and they do that at work all the time.

 

[yurinka]

Nobody cancelled him, he cancelled himself.

The guy acted as a moron so many people called him a moron. He decided to quit from the public scene.

 

[Maybe It's Medicine?]

My view of the guy is he was too far up his own ass after the success of Fez. He took his ball and went home, the world kept spinning.

 

[TrafalgarLaw]

Phil Fish always was an unstable individual.

 

[Clear]

He brought his own downfall upon himself by being a massively egocentric twat.

 

[Halo is Back]

The dude was unprofessional in the public space. He said a lot of dumb shit and in the end he canceled himself. Let him be an example of professionalism in the work and public space. Like that comment about Japanese game. He could of just said that he dose not enjoy them anymore outside of old Nintendo games but he just had to throw shade out to the entire Japanese people.

 

[Blond]

Nah cuz

 

[GardenOfAbbylon]

Good games or not, if a creator turns out to be a piece of shit, i don't wanna reward them by giving them money

 

[Ovek]

I thought the games he made especially Fez were massively overhyped and quite frankly shit. Turns out he was just as shit as a person as the games he made.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

He was a genius. Just coming up with and fully realising the concept of FEZ is likely the thing that sent him over the edge.

 

[lock2k]

Japan > Social Justice West.

Fuck this douche.

 

[reptilex]

He's a cunt SJW, so who gives a shit if he gets the right return of things, I think that's a good thing as much as I love FEZ.

 

[petran79]

I can really only remember him from Indie Game: The Movie. They featured a handful of indie devs that blew up during the XBLA era. They covered Super Meat Boy, Fez, and Braid. My impression was that Phil was spastic and angry-autistic. I don't think he was well-equipped to deal with the public relations, or any relations, side of things.

now that you mention the other games,their developers werent any better either.McMilen caused quite a stir with feminists with his Flash game Cunt and Braid author also had his own controversial statements.

No wonder indie boom collapsed fast and Japanese games returned with their own indies, surpassing Western indies.

 

[Bakkus]

It's so strange seeing press outlets giving Switch games higher scores than they initially did to the same titles on Wii U, because Japan (and Nintendo) is in vogue again.

Do you have any examples of this other than the obvious DKC:TF Gamespot outlier?

 

[brap]

Oh yeah this guy...

 

[Werewolf Jones]

He was a prick but I'd still fuck him.