After Electronic Arts boss Andrew Wilson suggested ‘Dragon Age: The Veilguard’ would have been more of a financial success if it had a live-service model, ‘It Takes Two’ developer Hazelight Studios boss Josef Fares has stressed the company will “never be a live-service game studio”.
Hazelight Studios founder Josef Fares has insisted the developer will “never be a live-service game studio”.
Electronic Arts – which published Hazelight’s 2021 adventure-platformer ‘It Takes Two’ and its upcoming co-op game ‘Split Fiction’ – recently suggested ‘Dragon Age: The Veilguard’ would have performed better if it used the live-service model, though Fares disagrees with this sentiment and has insisted live-service games will “never be [his] choice”.
Speaking about live-service titles with Eurogamer, the studio boss said: “We will not have them, I do not believe in them.
“I think [live-service] is not the right way to go. I hope more and more [developers] focus on their passion, and what they believe in.
“At the end of the day, we see clearly – and Hazelight is living proof – that when you trust in your vision and go with it, you can still reach a big audience. That’s what I want people to focus on.”
Fares added he understood live-service titles, such as ‘Call of Duty’, ‘Fortnite’ and ‘Battlefield’, were better than other games at generating higher profits for publishers, but insisted there had to be a “balance” between creativity and the “finance side” of game development.
He explained: “I have an understanding that publishers have a lot of, you know, worries about the ‘money issue’. But, I think also you have to understand that we are working with a piece of art here, so you have to respect the creativity as well.
“They have to meet in the middle. You can’t also be too much focused on creativity. You can’t just say ‘Give me $100m, I want to do what I want to do.’”
It Takes Two head vows dev Hazelight will ‘never be a live-service game studio’
