Hazelight Studios will bring gamers (and family members) back together, with the first look at their next multiplayer project. Split Fiction centers around sisters Mio and Zoe, aspiring writers looking to make their big break. As it just so happens, they are pushed into each other’s stories on purpose, causing the sisters to travel into a sci-fi and fantasy landscape full of opportunities (and flying pigs). It is up to them to escape their books and stop the publishing company from taking their stories as their own. Split Fiction is launching on consoles and PC on March 6, 2025.
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The studio teased the game in October, hinting at the new IP’s co-op gameplay and character names, with its founder, Josef Fares, chiming in with the words “S*** ******N”. This past weekend, Hazelight Studios’ founder gave a tour of the Swedish-based studio and provided an inside scoop on what’s next. During the tour, Fares dropped by the motion capture studio with actors, Kaja Chan and Elsie Bennett, in rehearsal. Fares cited that the names are based on his daughters Mio and Zoe.
Hazelight Studios was founded in 2014 by director and video game designer Josef Fares, whose success came from his work on 2013’s Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. With a focus on developing cooperative multiplayer games, the company launched A Way Out in 2018, a split-screen action-adventure co-op game centered around two convicts working together to escape prison. The title was announced at The Game Awards 2017 in a ‘passionate’ speech that criticized Star Wars Battlefront II‘s microtransactions and the Academy Awards’ take on video games, to which he responded by saying “f**k the Oscars”. Bold as the move was, this launched his rebellious persona into mainstream media, thus providing him an outlet to showcase his games.
A Way Out received positive reviews from critics and fans alike, who praised the emotional brotherhood story and innovative take on highlighting the co-op split-screen gameplay. The title sold 1 million copies within two weeks of launch and was nominated for Best Game Direction at The Game Awards in 2018.
Hazelight Studios continued to ride this success with the launch of the co-op action-adventure title It Takes Two, which follows a married couple on the brink of divorce that turn into their daughter’s hand-made dolls and must work together to find a way out while trying to fix their relationship. The title was met with critical acclaim and won Best Multiplayer Game, Best Family Game, and Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2021. In 2022, Hazelight Studios announced a movie adaptation is in the works at Amazon with dj2 Entertainment and The Rock’s Seven Buck Productions.