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 working on its subsequent game.
The inventive behind the infamous “f*** the Oscars” line spoke about Hazelight’s previous, current, and future during 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 workforce is already placing some early concepts collectively.
“For me, personally, every time a game is out, I’m kind of done with it. I’m kind of like, ‘OK, here’s the next thing,’” Fares defined when speaking about his mentality after releasing Split Fiction. “This has been a bit extra special. I would say that it’s been the best-received game we have done, but to be honest, everybody is super happy, but I’m so fully-focused and excited on the next thing that we already have started.”
Fares declined to share an excessive amount of about what Hazelight's mysterious subsequent title is named, what it’s about, or what type of game 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 very least a few more years to listen to how it plans to observe Split Fiction.
“There is a reason why I can’t talk about the next game; it’s because it’s quite early,” Fares added. “You do know, at Hazelight, we don’t work on [a] game more than three or four years. Three or four years is not so far away. Then we’re going to talk more about it. It’s way too early, but just know this: we are very, very, very, very excited here. Very excited, and we started working 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 secure the studio’s place as a main developer within the industry, Fares stated the corporate has had “zero” enter relating to the video games the developer chooses to work on.
“Here’s the thing, people don’t understand this: EA is a supporter. We don’t pitch games to them,” he defined. “We say, ‘We’re going to do this.’ That’s it. They have zero, and I mean zero, thing to say about what we’re doing next.”
While EA has a blended popularity as a writer, Fares stated his expertise with EA has been largely constructive as Hazelight expenses ahead to what’s coming subsequent.
“With that said, I have to say, they’re a good partner,” Fares added. “Nobody believes me. Whatever I say, they’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah. It’s EA.’ Look, I don’t know anything about what EA are doing. Maybe they’re f***ing up with other developers. With us, no. They respect us. They respect what we do. I’m very clear with them that they cannot interfere with what we do. Now, we have become one of their most successful studios.”
Split Fiction has simply solidified its place as one other Hazelight success story in more methods than one. While it rapidly propelled itself to high scores from critics (IGN's Split Fiction review returned a 9/10), it additionally managed to promote 1 million copies in solely 48 hours and 2 million copies in only one week. That means it’s already outpacing its previous title, It Takes Two, which had sold 20 million copies as of October 2024.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He's finest recognized for his work at websites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to present him a observe on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).