Hazelight Praises EA as 'Good Partner' Amid Next Game Development

Hazelight director Josef Fares has recently provided clarity on his studio's relationship with EA and announced that the team behind It Takes Two and Split Fiction is already working on their next project.

In an interview on the Friends Per Second podcast, Fares, known for his candid remarks including the infamous "f*** the Oscars" line, discussed Hazelight's journey. He expressed his excitement about moving on to new projects post-Split Fiction, which he described as the studio's best-received game to date. "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 stated, emphasizing his forward-looking approach.

A Tale of Two Studios

Over the past seven years, Hazelight has collaborated with EA on several successful titles, including A Way Out and It Takes Two. Fares emphasized the autonomy Hazelight enjoys in its creative process, stating, "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." He praised EA as a good partner, despite the publisher's mixed reputation, and highlighted that Hazelight has become one of EA's most successful studios.

Split Fiction has been a remarkable success for Hazelight, achieving high critical acclaim with IGN's review giving it a 9/10. The game sold 1 million copies in just 48 hours and 2 million copies within a week, outpacing the sales of It Takes Two, which had reached 20 million copies sold by October 2024.