Celebrating the release of co-op adventure game Split Fiction, director Josef Fares has spoken about his dislike for microtransactions in games. In a video reacting to YouTube comments about his games, Fares talks about microtransactions having a negative impact on game design.
Reacting to a comment that said “No lootboxes, no microtransactions, no BS. Words to live by,” Fares responded by saying “of course. And that goes for everything we do it Hazelight.”
“I think those kind of shits affect the design of how the game should be done,” Fares continued. “Every time you take a decision, a design decision, taken on you making more money in the game, I think it’s a huge problem and it’s stopping our industry from a creative perspective.”
Fares also responds to other comments, including one that refers to the recently-released Split Fiction as a “sequel to divorce simulator,” referring to Hazelight’s previous title It Takes Two.
“No no no no, my man,” responded Fares. “This is not a divorce at all. This is actually about friendship. So get ready to play with someone to get even more close as friends.”
Fares has traditionally called out the larger gaming industry on various aspects. Back in February, he called out Ubisoft for not having any co-op experiences in its more recent games.
“Other publishers aren’t doing this, and it’s crazy to me,” said Fares in an interviewe 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?”
Hazelight’s titles have largely revolved around two-player co-op with games like A Way Out and It Takes Two. The studio’s first game, however, was the single-player Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.
“Don’t chicken out to do single-player; just say this is split-screen only,” he continued. “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 has just come out on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The co-op-focused game revolves around two girls that are trying to get out of computer simulations that they are trapped in. Interestingly, players only need to buy a single copy of Split Fiction, with the co-op partner getting a Friend’s Pass so that they can play together online.
Check out our review for more details about Split Fiction.