Hazelight Studios has made a name for itself by creating excellent couch co-op games, with the team's latest release, Split Fiction, being one of 2025's best games, earning it several nominations at The Game Awards, the DICE Awards, and the Golden Joysticks. It was even one of Wccftech's picks for our Best Games of 2025, and according to the studio's creative director, Josef Fares, the studio's next game will be "better than Split Fiction."
This comes from a recent interview with The Game Business, where Fares talked about a lot more than just what he expects from the studio's next game. He talked about how the team at Hazelight is consistently raising its bar, which is why he added, "I feel extremely confident of everything we’re doing. I can easily say that our next game is better than Split Fiction."
That confidence comes from the culture that has been built at the studio since its debut game, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Hazelight currently stands at a team of 80 people, and keeping as much of that team together since its founding has been a key part of the studio's success, as they've all grown together with Josef Fares leading the charge with his "F*** s*** up mentality, without f***ing up."
Hazelight's games are known for being creatively supercharged, which Fares credits to his ability to "wake up the creative monster" inside the developers at Hazelight. A task easier said than done, though, as we're often the ones to get in our own way.
"People put a lot of limitations on themselves, and it’s mainly coming from their mind. Once you stop listening to that, shit will start happening. And how do you do it? Well, first, you practically push that person… in a nice way, obviously. You say, ‘not this’, ‘let’s do that’. ‘that’s been done before, let’s try this way’. And eventually they come into this ‘f*** s*** up’ mentality where they’re like, ‘okay, there are no limits’. And then you make that person feel confident that there really are no limits. People have so many possibilities inside them, and that’s not only for creating games, but in general. It’s just, stop listening to this [points to head] and just feel it instead."
Fares also discussed how the studio has had incredible commercial successes. Split Fiction sold 4 million copies at launch, and its prior release, It Takes Two, sold over 20 million copies as of March 2025. But those numbers weren't achieved with the studio following trends or trying to put microtransactions into everything. It came from the team at Hazelight keeping what's best for the game at the heart of all its decisions.
"Every decision, every single decision, taken by Hazelight will be based on what we feel is great for the game. We’re not going through data thinking what will sell or not sell. That’s not how we do it. I’m not saying that the business is not important. It’s important to combine them together. If you lean in too much on either side, either too much on creativity or too much on business, it’s going to be bad for the game."
On the topic of following trends, Fares also spared a few words on the hottest topic in the industry, GenAI. "We have been working with AI for a long time in game development. The problem is the generative AI."
"If [an AI tool] is helpful to get your vision out there, I don’t see why we shouldn’t look into it. But… it’s the generative AI that people are a bit like…It’s really hard to answer. If you look at Midjourney, for instance, when it came out it was so impressive. And five years later… the bar hasn’t gone up much. Maybe this is the limit of it."
"You get someone generating a game concept and saying, ‘oh look what might happen in five years?’ But who knows? In five years, maybe it’s going to be like Midjourney… not much better. At the end of the day, you still need someone that has a vision or idea of what game it is. I don’t see AI taking over. I don’t. But it’s really hard to answer. Who knows what happens in the future?"
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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