Hazelight director Josef Fares has taken the time to clear the air about his studio’s relationship with EA whereas promising that the It Takes Two and Split Fiction developer is already engaged on its subsequent sport.
The artistic behind the notorious “f*** the Oscars” line spoke about Hazelight’s previous, current, and future throughout an interview on the Friends Per Second podcast. For those that loved Split Fiction, the studio’s most up-to-date critically acclaimed co-op journey, he says the crew is already placing some early concepts collectively.
“For me, personally, each time a sport is out, I’m type of carried out with it. I’m type of like, ‘OK, right here’s the following factor,’” Fares defined when speaking about his mentality after releasing Split Fiction. “This has been a bit additional particular. I might say that it’s been the best-received sport we now have carried out, however to be trustworthy, all people is tremendous completely satisfied, however I’m so fully-focused and excited on the following factor that we have already got began.”
Fares declined to share an excessive amount of about what Hazelight’s mysterious subsequent title is named, what it’s about, or what sort of sport will probably be, largely as a result of work solely started round one month in the past. Hazelight is well-known for the mark it’s left on co-op gaming, however for now, we’ll have to attend at the least a number of extra years to listen to the way it plans to observe Split Fiction.
“There is a cause why I can’t discuss concerning the subsequent sport; it’s as a result of it’s fairly early,” Fares added. “You do know, at Hazelight, we don’t work on [a] sport greater than three or 4 years. Three or 4 years shouldn’t be so far-off. Then we’re going to speak extra about it. It’s means too early, however simply know this: we’re very, very, very, very excited right here. Very excited, and we began engaged on this a month ago-ish.”
A Tale of Two Studios
Hazelight has labored with writer EA on a number of titles within the final seven years. While video games like A Way Out and It Takes Two have continued to safe the studio’s place as a number one developer within the trade, Fares stated the corporate has had “zero” enter relating to the video games the developer chooses to work on.
“Here’s the factor, individuals don’t perceive this: EA is a supporter. We don’t pitch video games to them,” he defined. “We say, ‘We’re going to do that.’ That’s it. They have zero, and I imply zero, factor to say about what we’re doing subsequent.”
While EA has a blended popularity as a writer, Fares stated his expertise with EA has been largely optimistic as Hazelight expenses ahead to what’s coming subsequent.
“With that stated, I’ve to say, they’re a great companion,” Fares added. “Nobody believes me. Whatever I say, they’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah. It’s EA.’ Look, I don’t know something about what EA are doing. Maybe they’re f***ing up with different builders. With us, no. They respect us. They respect what we do. I’m very clear with them that they can not intervene with what we do. Now, we now have turn out to be one in all their most profitable studios.”
Split Fiction has simply solidified its place as one other Hazelight success story in additional methods than one. While it shortly propelled itself to excessive rankings from critics (IGN’s Split Fiction evaluate returned a 9/10), it additionally managed to promote 1 million copies in solely 48 hours and a pair of million copies in only one week. That means it’s already outpacing its earlier title, It Takes Two, which had offered 20 million copies as of October 2024.
Michael Cripe is a contract contributor with IGN. He’s finest identified for his work at websites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be positive to present him a observe on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
