„They get more hate than they deserve.” Josef Fares comes to EA's defense and points the finger at Sony and Nintendo
Josef Fares still believes that players are greatly exaggerating their criticism of Electronic Arts compared to other publishers.
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Players are overreacting with their criticism of Electronic Arts. At least, that's what the creator of co-op hits released by the American company has stated once again.
Players have always had a bit of a beef with big game publishers, and with all the recent layoffs and unpopular decisions by developers—often blamed on "corporate" influence—players are even more convinced that the "suits" running these companies are the bad guys. EA is definitely one of those companies that gamers love to hate, which isn't surprising given their track record: they've bought and shut down a bunch of well-loved studios and stirred up drama with things like controversial microtransactions.
EA no worse than other publishers
Nevertheless, at least one person holds Electronic Arts in high regard: Josef Fares from Hazelight Studios (Split Fiction, It Takes Two). Back in March 2025, the creator, who's known for not holding back, was saying how he thinks the company gets criticized even when it doesn't deserve it.
Since then, EA has been effectively taken over, which in itself sparked some controversy. Despite this, Fares maintained his opinion in an interview with The Game Business.
There are a lot of great people at EA. They know how we work. They respect it and they leave us be. Let’s be honest, there’s not a publisher in the world that hasn’t fucked up now and then. Sometimes I feel that EA is getting more shit than they deserve. I mean, come on, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, everybody’s done something that’s not good. But for some reason, EA has become this bad guy.
For us, it’s a super good collaboration. I’m very open about. If it was bad, I would’ve said that in this interview as well. But we have a great relationship. I’m not saying that they haven’t done any mistakes like every other publisher.
Fares also refuted the common accusation that EA is mainly about "suits." As he put it, he is surrounded by "gamers" who love video games, and the company itself doesn't interfere with Hazelight's operations.
This doesn't mean that Fares looks at "corporations" uncritically. He is also concerned about the trend of publishers chasing trends, which he expressed with concern about abandoning AAA games after the success of less costly titles like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Many other developers have previously expressed similar opinions, pointing to the problem with seemingly "safe" investments.
Nevertheless, it's unlikely that after this interview, players will share Fares' opinion about Electronic Arts. Especially when the company "accidentally" reminded everyone of its past failure.
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Author: Jacob Blazewicz
Graduated with a master's degree in Polish Studies from the University of Warsaw with a thesis dedicated to this very subject. Started his adventure with gamepressure.com in 2015, writing in the Newsroom and later also in the film and technology sections (also contributed to the Encyclopedia). Interested in video games (and not only video games) for years. He began with platform games and, to this day, remains a big fan of them (including Metroidvania). Also shows interest in card games (including paper), fighting games, soulslikes, and basically everything about games as such. Marvels at pixelated characters from games dating back to the time of the Game Boy (if not older).
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