Josef Fares and Hazelight have created an award-winning co-op game with It Takes Two. Now he has an idea for Ubisoft.
Who is it about? Josef Fares is the founder of Hazelight Studios and the game director of the co-op games “It Takes Two” and “A Way Out.” Both are co-op games that are played in split-screen mode.
With “A Way Out”, Hazelight had an initial success in 2018, before the Swedish studio won the Game of the Year award in 2021 with “It Takes Two”.
In an interview with the English-language magazine GamesRadar, Fares also talked about Ubisoft and even proposed an idea for a game to the competitor.
“They would sell a ton of copies”
What is this idea? Fares finds it “crazy” that other publishers do not make co-op games. People would love these games and he even has an idea on how Ubisoft could make money with the “Splinter Cell” series: “I look at Ubisoft, and they are struggling right now – and I hope someone listens to this interview – but why don’t they take Sam Fisher and make a pure split-screen game?”
For almost 11.5 years, Ubisoft has not released a new installment of the stealth game. The latest part, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, was released in 2013. However, Fares sees the series as a possibility for a co-op game: “Don’t be too cowardly to make a single-player game, just say it’s only split-screen.”
Fares went on: “I can guarantee you, they would sell a ton of copies. […] That’s a guaranteed success for them; it’s for you, Ubisoft. You can take it for free from me.”
What is happening at Ubisoft? Ubisoft is currently in a financially difficult situation, partly due to some failures, including the flopped Skull & Bones, Star Wars Outlaws, and XDefiant.
The future of Ubisoft seems very uncertain at the moment. Experts believe that the sale of individual IPs or even the company might be on the table if the negative trend cannot be halted. Industry insider Jason Schreier also believes that Ubisoft has only one chance in 2025 and that is Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
For Josef Fares and Hazelight, on the other hand, things are going really well. In March 2025, they will release their latest game, which will again focus on split-screen co-op: Split Fiction. In the first trailer of the title, Fares made bold statements: “No loot boxes, no microtransactions, no bullshit” – New co-op game from acclaimed developers aims to convince as a game
