Hazelight's director, Josef Fares, recently provided clarity on his studio's relationship with EA and announced that the team behind the acclaimed titles It Takes Two and Split Fiction is already hard at work on their next project. In an interview on the Friends Per Second podcast, Fares, known for his candid "f*** the Oscars" statement, discussed the past, present, and future of Hazelight. He expressed excitement about moving on to new projects post-Split Fiction, stating, "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.’"
Although Fares kept details about the new game under wraps, mentioning that development began about a month ago, he emphasized the studio's enthusiasm for this early-stage project. He noted, "There is a reason why I can’t talk about the next game; it’s because it’s quite early. 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."
A Tale of Two Studios
Over the past seven years, Hazelight has collaborated with EA on multiple projects, including A Way Out and It Takes Two, which have solidified Hazelight's reputation as a top developer. Fares emphasized that EA has had "zero" influence over the games Hazelight chooses to create, saying, "Here’s the thing, people don’t understand this: EA is a supporter. We don’t pitch games to them. 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."
Despite EA's sometimes controversial reputation, Fares praised the publisher for being a supportive partner. He stated, "With that said, I have to say, they’re a good partner. 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 proven to be another triumph for Hazelight, achieving high critical acclaim with IGN's review awarding it a 9/10. The game also achieved remarkable sales success, selling 1 million copies within 48 hours and reaching 2 million copies sold in just one week. These figures indicate that Split Fiction is outperforming its predecessor, It Takes Two, which had sold 20 million copies by October 2024.
