Split Fiction and It Takes Two director is already "fully focused" on Hazelight's next game, which the studio started work on around a month ago: "It's quite early"

The two characters in Split Fiction in futuristic bodysuits staring at a huge crack in the simulation they're in
(Image credit: EA)

Split Fiction hasn't even been out for two full weeks yet, but director Josef Fares has confirmed that Hazelight Studios is already working on its next game, which he's "fully focused" on and "super excited" about.

The latest co-op romp from the It Takes Two studio was an immediate success when it released earlier this month – after selling one million copies in only two days, it quickly cemented itself as Hazelight's fastest-selling game ever, and on Metacritic, it's currently the highest rated game of the year, to boot. Now, though, speaking on the Friends Per Second podcast, Fares says while the team is feeling "super, super happy and excited" following the launch, he's already looking at what comes next.

"For me personally, every time a game is out, I'm kind of done with it," the director admits. "I'm kind of like. 'OK, now it's the next thing,' but this has been a bit extra special because I would say that it's been the best-received game we have done. But to be honest, everybody's super happy, but I'm so fully focused and excited on the next thing that we already have started, just want to say that. So I feel super, super excited."

Interview: Josef Fares reacts to Split Fiction's GOTY-level review scores | Friends Per Second #64 - YouTube Interview: Josef Fares reacts to Split Fiction's GOTY-level review scores | Friends Per Second #64 - YouTube
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While Fares doesn't give any hints about what this next game will be about, noting that "it's quite early" with work on it being started around "a month ago," it hopefully won't be too long before we find out more. He notes: "At Hazelight, we don't work with games [for] more than three or four years, and I mean, three or four years is not so far away, then we're gonna talk more about it."

Regardless of what adventure Hazelight is taking us on next, we can be pretty dang confident that it won't have any microtransactions in it, at least. Fares has repeatedly expressed his hatred of them, recently noting that they contribute to a "huge problem" that's "stopping our industry from a creative perspective."

It Takes Two sold over 20 million copies and won GOTY, but Hazelight's Josef Fares says "all the numbers looked really, really bad" before the co-op studio became "this really big developer."

Catherine Lewis
News Writer

I'm one of 12DOVE's news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

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