summary
- Splitfiction has been a commercial and serious success, selling over a million copies in 48 hours.
- Despite the success of Split Fiction, Hazelight Studios is already working on the next game.
- EA respects Hazelite’s independence and allows it to be created without interference.
Split Fiction is a genuine commercial and critical hit from Hazelight Studios. It sold over a million copies in just 48 hours and established a new simultaneous record for EA’s published game.
While some studios may be immersed in success before moving forward, Hazelight’s development team is already gearing up for the next game.
Hazelight boss Jose Juarez has already confirmed the studio working on his next game
Hazelight founder Jose Fares was a guest on The Friends Ter Second Podcast (Culture Crave), who said, “Split Fiction is the best game we’ve done and everyone is so happy, but I’m totally focused and excited about the next thing.”
As expected, Fares did not provide anything specific about Hazelight’s next project. Split fiction is a huge success, but the studio doesn’t feel pressure for the next game. On the contrary, I think it will get even better.
The fare is, “I’m not feeling what we’re feeling right now, ‘Oh, shit, how do we top (dividing the fiction) or do better than this?” We’re just… waiting for what we do next.
In the same chat, Fares revealed that Hazelight has not pitched the studio’s games to publisher Electronic Arts (EA). If you didn’t know, EA was the publisher of all the games in Hazelight. Instead, they tell me EA what they do. Fares said, “That’s it. They have zeros to say what we’re doing next.”
Additionally, Fares acknowledges that EA is “increasing partnerships with other companies, but that’s not Hazels.” They respect what we do. They make it very clear to them that we can’t prevent what we’re doing,” Fares pointed out.
Whatever Hazelight’s next project, don’t expect it anytime soon. Studios usually take 3-4 years to develop the game. Way Out began development in 2014 and was released in 2018. TakesTowes was released in 2021, and Split Fiction was released this year. With that estimate, don’t expect Hazelight’s latest games to be available sooner than 2028 or 2029. This means that the studio’s next game is very likely to be the title of the PS6 and the next Xbox console.
If you’re not playing split fiction, you might want to change it because the game is really there that good. Our review also mentions how Split Fiction proved that Hazelight was simply the best modern studio in the cooperative business. Keep in mind that Split Fiction, like HaseLight’s past games, is purely a cooperative experience and you can’t play solo or bots. If you have another friend who has a competent PC or PS5 or Xbox Series X | S, you can share the game via the “Friend’s Pass” system.
