'Every publisher f***s up now and then': Split Fiction director passionately defends EA

Founder of Hazelight Studios and director of Split Fiction Josef Fares isn't usually afraid to voice his opinion and he's passionately leapt to the defence of publisher Electronic Arts (EA), saying "every publisher f***s up now and then".

Hazelight Studios is a Swedish gaming studio that has developed titles such as A Way Out, 2021 Game of the Year It Takes Two and the recently released Split Fiction, which so far has the highest MetaCritic game score of 2025.

All of these titles have been published by EA, which has been criticised from some corners of the gaming industry for years, with some claiming it rushes out unfinished games to meet deadlines, prioritises microtransactions and game releases feel repetitive.

But speaking to PC Mag, Fares passionately defended the publisher and refuted these claims.

Hazelight Studios founder Josef Fares has passionately defended publisher EA / Image by Jonathan Nackstrand, AFP via Getty Images

"Every publisher f***s up now and then," he said.

"For some reason, people like to hate EA, I don't know why. My relationship with them is very good. They're super supportive of us. So I have nothing bad to say about them."

Fares added EA has never interfered with his studio's projects and backed the decision for It Takes Two and Split Fiction to feature a friend pass, where only one copy of the game needs to be bought for two people to play it together.

He said: "I say all the time, 'f*** s*** up without f*****g up', and these are not just things I say to be funny.

"What I'm trying to say is that there's no limitation to creativity here. Everything is OK at the studio and it's only me and the team, which means if there's an idea up there, we just talk about it and it's in. You don't have these layers of like, you gotta go through this, do that, there's nothing like that."

For more from indy100, check out our best 100 video games of all time and our review of Assassin's Creed Shadows.

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.