Yousef Fares — on "excellent people" in EA, AI, and the necessity of AAA blockbusters for the industry

Josef Fares on the "Great People" at EA, AI, and the Need for AAA Blockbusters in the Industry

One of the most vivid and notable developers of our time, Josef Fares, gave an interview to The Game Business. The eccentric developer spoke about his good relationship with Electronic Arts, shared his thoughts on mid-budget projects, reflected on risks and responsibility, and, of course, spoke about AI—you can't avoid it these days!

No One Believed in Them

Hazelight Studios went against accepted norms from the very beginning, deciding to make narrative projects that can only be played by two people. The idea was considered risky and commercially dubious, but it worked. The 2018 debut A Way Out sold 12 million copies, and the 2021 release It Takes Two was purchased an astronomical 27 million times.

I remember how almost no one believed in us at the beginning. Everyone kept saying there was no place on the market for co-op projects without a single-player mode. And now it's the opposite: we sell more copies of our games than some of the biggest AAA studios.

Josef Fares

The Balance Between Business and Ideas

Fares is not a businessman and doesn't aspire to be one. Financial and management issues at Hazelight are primarily handled by the studio's COO, Oskar Wolontis. Josef himself focuses on creativity, but he emphasizes that without a balance between commerce and ideas, good games don't happen.

As an example, he cites the "Friend's Pass" system. It allows two people to play Hazelight's projects online together, even if only one copy was purchased. According to Fares, the decision stemmed from a simple sense of injustice: if people can sit together on a couch and play without extra charges, why should online co-op cost more? This logic seemed natural to him, and the team implemented the system not for profit, but from creative and ethical considerations. Only later did it turn out that such an approach is also commercially beneficial—it expands the audience and boosts sales.

Absolutely every decision at Hazelight is made based on what, in our feeling, is best for the game. We don't dig through data trying to guess what will sell and what won't. We don't work that way. I'm not saying business isn't important. It's important to know how to combine these things. If you lean too heavily to one side—either pure creativity or just business—the game will only suffer.

Josef Fares

This is precisely why Fares is categorically against taking Hazelight public. He believes a public company is forced to make decisions that improve financial reports but harm the games. Such a skew towards financial metrics is not close to him, and he doesn't want business logic to start dictating to the studio which projects to make and how.

There Are Great Guys at EA

Hazelight has been closely collaborating with Electronic Arts since its founding: EA has published all three of the studio's games. At the same time, Fares considers EA's reputation as a "corporate villain" largely unfair and exaggerated.

There are many great people at EA. They understand how we work, respect this approach, and don't interfere with us. To be honest, there isn't a single publisher in the world that doesn't mess up from time to time. Sometimes I think the guys at EA get much more criticism than they deserve. Seriously: Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony—all have made controversial decisions. But for some reason, EA has been turned into the main villain.

For us, it's truly a great partnership, and I say this openly. If everything were bad, I would have said so in this interview. Yes, EA, like any publisher, has made mistakes—I don't deny that.

All the people I work with at EA are gamers. They love games. They aren't some corporate managers in suits. It's not like that at all. So people shouldn't worry: Hazelight will always do what it thinks is right.

Josef Fares

Diversity is the Key to Development

Fares generally looks at the industry's future with optimism, but he is concerned by publishers' habit of chasing the next successful format. Against the backdrop of the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, there is more and more talk that AA projects are supposedly becoming the new standard. In his opinion, this harbors a danger: publishers might decide that now they only need to make such games, completely abandoning other scales and approaches.

The developer emphasizes that he himself cannot imagine the industry without major blockbusters. It's important to Fares that big AAA games come out because they provide a unique experience that cannot be created with a small budget. He cites GTA as an example—such a project simply cannot be made for, say, $10 million.

At the same time, Fares insists that the industry needs all formats at once: AA, AAA, and indie. Fixating on one idea is dangerous because diversity is the key to development. Fares reminds us that in 2025 itself, many AA games were released that went almost unnoticed, despite the general hype around the format.

Fares acknowledges that as budgets grow, the fear of making a mistake becomes stronger: when more than $100 million is at stake, developers and publishers start acting more cautiously. This is understandable, but, according to him, a large budget does not mean abandoning bold ideas. He believes that studios like Naughty Dog, Rockstar, and Nintendo regularly prove the opposite: they make large-scale AAA games and still experiment, moving the industry forward. In Fares' opinion, the examples of these companies show that even within large budgets, you can and should take...