CliffyB appeals to Phil Fish for games industry return

Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski has penned an open letter to embattled Fez developer Phil Fish, imploring him to return to games development following his high profile departure over the weekend.

Fish announced on Sunday via Twitter that he was "getting out of games" and blamed the amount of internet vitriol he received. "I choose not to put up with this abuse anymore," he explained.

His recently-announced Fez sequel was then announced as cancelled.

"To be clear, I'm not cancelling Fez 2 because some boorish f*** said something stupid," Fish added. "I'm doing it to get out of games."

Bleszinski posted his lengthy reply on Tumblr last night. It comprises a lengthy plea for Fish to rethink his decision, and details some of the internet abuse Bleszinski himself has faced over the years.

"Never underestimate the intestinal fortitude of the anonymous loser hiding behind a monitor and his or her ability to sling vitriol at someone who willingly puts themselves out there," Bleszinski wrote. "The fact of the matter, Phil, is that you were trending worldwide on Twitter. How many game developers can say that? Does no one realise that while you may seem somewhat unstable at times you also have Andy Kaufman as your Twitter AVI?

"Never forget that the internet can be a fantastic thing, but it can also be fantastically dumb. Reddit is a wonderful community for finding out funny memes or random facts until they falsely accuse someone of being the Boston Bomber or go out of their way to protect the r/creepshots loser...

"The other key is to absorb all of that hate into one big fireball of motivation inside of your belly and then pour all of that energy into your work until you can unleash one big giant motherf***ing HADOKEN upon the community that wins awards and sells millions and then the haters will truly be eating a giant bushel of dicks as you roll in a pile of money, acclaim, and community love.

"You don't owe a damned thing to any gaming journalist. We've seen the rise of many 'Rush Limbaughs' in the gaming industry, people who do videos or podcasts digging a finger into an open wound that gets the gaming community going because, hits. You DO owe a great product to your community, something I hope you'll resume doing some time in the near future. The industry needs people like you to speak with their hearts before their brains because I'm tired of hearing the PR approved appropriate response. I'm tired of games that feel like they've been developed by focus groups or clueless executives going 'Hey that Call of Duty is big, we need one of those!'

"Besides, at the end of the day, that cycle of community feedback and crafting that big fireball is entirely too addictive. Come back, Phil. We miss you already."