Josef Fares, the outspoken founder of Split Fiction developer Hazelight Studios, has commented in EDGE’s Knowledge newsletter that he feels Electronic Arts gets a lot of unfair flak, noting that the publishing powerhouse has always been ‘super good’ for his company.
EA definitely never interferes with any of development. And I mean zero. I’m gonna give EA props for actually believing in, and backing up, the vision. They never interfere. Sometimes, I think they get so much s**t they don’t deserve. I don’t know how they work with others, but with us it’s super good.
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Developers can sometimes struggle with leadership and clear vision, Sometimes, I hear a lot of blame [placed] on the publisher, but I think it’s a responsibility for us both… The perfect combination is when the publisher respects the developer and the developer has a clear vision of what they want to do. If that doesn’t exist, then there’s a risk the publisher will take over more and more. You know, there needs to be a perfect symbiosis between them.
Hazelight Studios has recently been celebrating the success of Split Fiction, which moved one million copies during its first 48 hours on sale and later surpassed the two million mark after one week. Fares has been pretty open about a variety of topics lately, stating that his studio will never implement microtransactions in its games and also touching base on the application of AI in game development.
Split Fiction is now available for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S, and you can read our full review here.
[Source – EDGE Knowledge Newsletter via GamesRadar]
