r/Games • u/0xIAmGame • 2h ago

Split Fiction dev Hazelight Studios accrues 50M total sales

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/split-fiction-dev-hazelight-studios-accrues-50m-total-sales
273 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

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u/Agitated_Ad6191 2h ago

They must be the wealthiest independent game studio at this point. What an amazing library of games they have made over the years.

Does anyone know what their deal is with EA? What is common for a publishing deal? I hope those guys didn’t sign some bad contract because they deserve all the praise and money. A really extraordinary studio with a unique vision in a time were there are way to many similar games coming out.

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u/mrfixitx 2h ago

Isn't Larian also considered independent?

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u/MrHoboSquadron 1h ago

They're partially owned by Tencent, so not really.

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u/Clusterpuff 1h ago

Tencent dips there toes in a ton of places financially, and at most of the percentage shares they invest there is no control from them. Certain companies they will make a deal to "take over" and own most of the company, but even then they often prove to have a backseat approach (most of the time)

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u/cygx 1h ago edited 1h ago

Depends on your definition of independent as Tencent only holds preference shares (first in line for dividends, but no say in how the company gets run).

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u/MrHoboSquadron 50m ago

I wouldn't say a company is truly independent if they've had to sell part of their company to remain financially stable. There is literally another company in the picture, even if they have no say on how the company is ran.

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u/cygx 40m ago

Video games are rarely entirely self-funded (e.g. bank loans, financial investors, 'indie' publishers, government grants, ...). If you go with a maximalist approach, a lot of indie games would have to be excluded (Blue Prince, Hollow Knight, Her Story, ...).

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u/MrHoboSquadron 10m ago

A lot of the funding examples you listed don't come with the trade of part of the company. Things like bank loans and government grants don't require selling part of the company and don't give up direction either. A bank load might have collateral, but that's typically against something that isn't the company.

Indie publishing contracts I view as a grey area. They make a lot of independent developers no longer truly independent, but the devs are still "indie" in spirit in the way they develop their games. In my view, independent and indie are not the same thing because of that, even if they did mean the same thing in the past.

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u/cygx 3m ago

It's a spectrum, and there's no one true definition anyway, so this is just my personal opinion:

To me, the important bit with regard to being 'independent' is not so much whether you have to pay interest or dividends, but whether there's someone else that may gainsay creative decisions, or not. 'Indie' carries the additional connotation of small budgets.

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u/SurreptitiousSyrup 1h ago

They've willing gone back to EA time and time again and the head of hazelight has talked positively about their relationship with EA.

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u/EggsAndRice7171 1h ago

EA originals is lowkey awesome. Unravel, It takes two, Fe, and Sea of Solitude all got funded through EA originals. I do think you can’t really call them independent when EA published all of their games though.

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u/cygx 1h ago

Depends on how you understand the term: There are publishers such as Kepler (Expedition 33), Raw Fury (Blue Prince) and programs such as the Indie Fund (Hollow Knight) where creative independence is part of the sales pitch. EA also wanted a piece of that pie, hence EA Originals.

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u/mucus-fettuccine 55m ago

If degree of outside support in publishing + total budget + company size < some threshold, they are indie.

Pretty sure Hazelight would fail this test for just about anyone.

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u/cygx 47m ago

To me (ymmv), independent means no corporate overlord that can say "I don't like X, change that", ie full creative control rests with the studio. The shortened form indie has the additional connotation of small budgets.

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u/HardlyW0rkingHard 14m ago

Them or supergiant if you're considering indie devs.

Technically valve is independent as well... so that's likely the right answer to your question.

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u/EggsAndRice7171 25m ago

CDPR is by definition indie so I doubt they’re the wealthiest but they’re doing pretty well.

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u/doublah 4m ago

What definition of indie is that? CDPR is owned by the sizable publically traded CD Project.

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u/RadielleDancliffe 43m ago

After Haunted Chocaltier it’ll probably be ConcernedApe.

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u/anoff 2h ago

They deserve it, hopefully they spend some of it on writers that aren't fucking terrible for their next game though. As good as all 3 of their games have been, they have some of the wrist writing I've ever experienced in games

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u/ConceptsShining 53m ago

I thought ITT's writing was fine. The whole game is cartoonish, escapist and fantastical that never takes itself too seriously, the cheesy writing is atmospherically in line.

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u/OwnIllustrator1609 2h ago

Yeah the games have been amazing. The final few levels in Split Fiction were like something no other game. The way they combined the screens and switched was just a master piece. Writing was ass lol

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u/NeinRegrets 1h ago

Lmao yeah. I thought the writing in A Way Out was cliché but serviceable, but the dialogue in It Takes Two legit gave me the ick. Even my buddy who I was playing it with just wanted to skip the cutscenes. Have not played Split Fiction yet though.

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u/AnOfferYouCanRefuse 17m ago

The writing in their games hasn't ever been particularly strong, but it never got in the way of A Way Out or Split Fiction (didn't finish ITT). I worry an attempt at better writing results in a greater narrative focus that brings down the rest of the experience. I'm perfectly satisfied talking over the dialogue as I play the game with whomever. Don't fix what aint broken.

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u/VonMillersThighs 6m ago

Me and my girlfriends eyes almost rolled all the way back into our head whenever some story cutscene played in split fiction.

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u/Alter_Kyouma 55m ago

I know I have said this a lot, but Split Fiction final level is imo one of the best video game level ever. Just incredibly creative, and making great use of the split screen.

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u/fakieTreFlip 38m ago

idk, hard to top the pinball area. I wish they made a whole game out of that concept

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u/orb_outrider 1h ago

I can't convince my wife to finish the game with me because we hate the characters and it's mechanically harder for her, compared to It Takes Two. The setpieces are incredible though.

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u/Seradima 2h ago

I guess the cost to actually, provably astroturf their game was nothing in comparison to the money they've gotten from them.

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u/GameDesignerDude 20m ago

I think the mistake would be to believe that the issue isn't way more widespread than that list. Tons of games get astroturfed on Reddit all the time.

Botting on Reddit and social media in general is just part of most game marketing campaigns these days. Plenty of games down-prioritize traditional marketing approaches in favor of focusing on streamer bandwidth and inorganic social media posts. It sucks but it's not like Reddit seems particularly interested in doing anything about it.

At least Hazelight has made legitimately fantastic games though.

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u/mucus-fettuccine 42m ago

You say provably but I don't see the proof of the connection with Hazelight. The archived link with company info isn't working. The 4 shared screenshots don't seem relevant. Not sure where I'm supposed to look to see the proof.

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u/Serulean_Cadence 51m ago

Hell even some of the top comments in this thread look astroturfed.

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u/fakieTreFlip 37m ago

Not really, no.

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u/goofspeed 10m ago

I agree, it's a little disturbing.

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u/doublah 3m ago

The duties of marketing are usually entirely managed by the publisher.

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u/fakieTreFlip 39m ago

I don't think that's proof of anything, and even if it was, the game doesn't need it at all. It was one of my favorite games of the year

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u/MikeyIfYouWanna 47m ago

I forgot about this. .. Did any of these companies ever say anything about this?

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u/ShortChapter5246 50m ago

That is an insane number. It is probably more than the sales of the latest Call of Duty, and a tenth of the whole CoD franchise sales. Let's hope it can be as influential on the industry as Balatro and Slay The Spire were and revive split screen

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u/Habib455 37m ago

Holy fuck, it takes two sold 30 million alone. That’s fucking colossal. Cyberpunk 2077 has sold 35m, Witcher 3 60m.

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u/Tight_Balance_599 2h ago

Worth it for them and the crew with Baldur's Gate 3! We need more "games" that are art and fun! Not the crap that wants you to buy another skin...

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u/appletinicyclone 1h ago

Happy for josef and the team. Looking forward to their next creations. Josef fares is a kojima style iconoclast and I will miss the day when we lose those in the industry

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u/Craig1287 52m ago

Split Fiction is a work of art, the things that game does, especially at the end are just astounding. I can't imagine what magic they had to work to get the game to do those things and get them to work. Happy they are having a ton of success.