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 Cut up Fiction developer is already engaged on its subsequent sport.

The inventive behind the notorious “f*** the Oscars” line spoke about Hazelight’s previous, current, and future throughout an interview on the Associates Per Second podcast. For many who loved Cut up 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, each time a sport is out, I’m form of executed with it. I’m form of like, ‘OK, right here’s the following factor,’” Fares defined when speaking about his mentality after releasing Cut up Fiction. “This has been a bit further particular. I’d say that it’s been the best-received sport we’ve executed, however to be trustworthy, everyone is tremendous pleased, 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 it will likely 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 just a few extra years to listen to the way it plans to comply with Cut up Fiction.

“There’s 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 isn’t so far-off. Then we’re going to speak extra about it. It’s method 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 Story of Two Studios

Hazelight has labored with writer EA on a number of titles within the final seven years. Whereas video games like A Means Out and It Takes Two have continued to safe the studio’s place as a number one developer within the business, Fares mentioned the corporate has had “zero” enter with regards to the video games the developer chooses to work on.

“Right here’s the factor, folks don’t perceive this: EA is a supporter. We don’t pitch video games to them,” he defined. “We are saying, ‘We’re going to do that.’ That’s it. They’ve zero, and I imply zero, factor to say about what we’re doing subsequent.”

Whereas EA has a blended fame as a writer, Fares mentioned his expertise with EA has been largely optimistic as Hazelight prices ahead to what’s coming subsequent.

“With that mentioned, I’ve to say, they’re a very good companion,” Fares added. “No one believes me. No matter I say, they’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah. It’s EA.’ Look, I don’t know something about what EA are doing. Possibly 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 intrude with what we do. Now, we’ve change into one among their most profitable studios.”

Cut up Fiction has simply solidified its place as one other Hazelight success story in additional methods than one. Whereas it rapidly propelled itself to excessive rankings from critics (IGN’s Cut up Fiction evaluate returned a 9/10), it additionally managed to promote 1 million copies in solely 48 hours and 2 million copies in only one week. Which means it’s already outpacing its earlier title, It Takes Two, which had bought 20 million copies as of October 2024.

Michael Cripe is a contract contributor with IGN. He is finest identified for his work at websites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. You should definitely give him a comply with on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).