Josef Fares, director on upcoming co-op title Split Fiction and previous games like It Takes Two, believes that Ubisoft should make a local split-screen co-op game. In an interview with GamesRadar, Fares calls out Ubisoft for not engaging more with an audience that wants local co-op experiences.
“Other publishers aren’t doing this, and it’s crazy to me,” said Fares. “So many people are playing these games, and people love them. I mean, I’m looking at Ubisoft, and they’re struggling now, and I hope someone [from there] listens to this interview, but why aren’t they taking [Splinter Cell protagonist] Sam Fisher and doing a split-screen-only game?”
Fares, whose games have largely revolved around local split-screen co-op with titles like A Way Out and It Takes Two, has traditionally been a big supporter of co-op in games.
“Don’t chicken out to do single-player; just say this is split-screen only,” continued Fares. “Boom, that’s it. You have success, and I can guarantee you that they will sell a huge amount of copies of that. Yeah, they don’t even have to do it the Hazelight way; why don’t they listen to this [interview] and be like, ‘Oh, he’s right.’ That’s a guaranteed success for them; it’s for you, Ubisoft. You can get it for free from me.”
Split Fiction was unveiled during The Game Awards back in December 2024. Much like previous titles by studio Hazelight, Split Fiction will also revolve around co-op gameplay, with two players taking on the roles of Zoe and Mio. The duo finds themselves stuck in each others’ simulations and have to figure out how to escape.
The various levels in Split Fiction will revolve around the kind of fiction Zoe and Mio enjoy, and will constantly have players jumping between sci-fi and fantasy games as they take on various platforming, combat and puzzle-solving challenging.
More recently, Split Fiction got a story trailer that highlighted the story and characters of the game. The trailer also emphasised that both Zoe and Mio are writers, and must work together to take on the challenges together.
Split Fiction is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on March 6. The PC requirements for the game were revealed earlier, and you can go here to learn more about what kind of hardware you’ll need to run it. The studio has also announced that Split Fiction has gone gold.