Fares’ new game, Split Fiction, has achieved excellent sales in a short time, so there must be something to what he says.

It’s safe to say that Joses Fares doesn’t hold back. He’s always speaking his mind, and he did so again on the Fall Damage YouTube channel when he gave a very strong opinion on microtransactions. Around 2017-2018 we saw them in a lot of games, from NBA 2K to Star Wars Battlefront II (where Electronic Arts had to take them out before release due to negative feedback, but let’s not forget the loot boxes) to Marvel’s Avengers (where they also had to take them out). They showed up in Dying Light 2: Stay Human, but also in single-player titles (Devil May Cry V, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, and many other Ubisoft titles).

“I think that kind of shit affects the design of how the game should be made. Every time you make a design decision based on making more money in the game, I think it’s a huge problem and it stops our industry from a creative perspective,” Fares said about microtransactions in his usual blunt style.

These days, developers are more cautious about using microtransactions. They are usually only used for cosmetic items, but they are becoming more widespread because the growth of the games industry is not progressing as expected by top executives, while development costs are skyrocketing, so they want to squeeze as much money as possible out of the average player…

There are no microtransactions in Fares’ game. Nevertheless, Hazelight’s latest cooperative game is a success, as Split Fiction requires two players after It Takes Two. Released on March 6 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC, the game sold more than 2 million copies in 48 hours, or two days. Electronic Arts will not be complaining about this game like they did not long ago with Dragon Age: The Veilguard and EA Sports FC 25.

Congratulations to Fares’ studio!

Source: WCCFTech