Summary
When Hazelight Studios' latest title,Split Fiction, releasesnext month on March 6, you’ll be able to play the entire game with a friend for free. Indeed, the Swedish-based developer announced thatit will be bringing back the “Friend’s Pass"for its upcoming title.
What’s more, the ability to play with a friend for free won’t be platform-locked. Rather, according to a post on Twitter, you can play on any platform. Per that same tweet, it’s as easy as having a copy of the game, getting a friend to download the “Friend’s Pass” and sending them an invite.
Free Co-Op Has Defined Hazelight Studios
When Hazelight launched A Way Out in 2018, it was revealed that only one player needed to own a copy of the game for two people to join in together online, a relatively novel idea at the time.
At the time, Josef Fares, its writer and director, stated, “We are super excited to allow friends to enjoy the game together, and only one of them has to buy the game.” Naturally, it proved to be a major hit, and that feature carried over for the studio’s second game, It Takes Two.
What’s most interesting is that the decision to make co-op a free add-on hasn’t impacted sales.It was reported in late 2024 that It Takes Two had crossed 20 million copies soldin roughly three and a half years after its release. Similarly,A Way Out topped over nine million in copies sold by June of last year. In other words, Split Fiction is following tradition, one it hopes will lead to similar amounts of sales.
