There was once a time that Josef Fares, founder of Hazelight Studios (It Takes Two, Split Fiction), was best known for his rant against the Oscars at The Game Awards.
It's hard to believe that took place nine years ago, but as they say, time flies. Since that fateful evening in 2017, Fares's Hazelight Studios has been on a roll. Fares is best known for a focus on local co-operative play and consumer-friendly practices, including his dislike of NFTs and distaste for microtransactions.
The team released their first game, A Way Out, in 2018. They'd achieve stardom three years later, though, with It Takes Two, which would go on to win Game of the Year at the 2021 Game Awards. They buoyed that success in 2025 with the genre-bending co-operative adventure Split Fiction, and are already hard at work on their next game. It's safe to say that, based on their track record, it's already one of the most highly anticipated games in development.
Fares and his team at Hazelight seem to be the antithesis of all the issues with modern gaming, and gamers have certainly noticed, as the studio is now celebrating a major sales...
