Joseph Fares, the director of the newly released game Split Fiction, believes that microtransactions have no place in the video game industry despite their significant role in generating revenue for many companies.
Fares, who rose to prominence after creating Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons in 2013, has built his reputation on developing cooperative games that players can enjoy together. His previous titles include A Way Out and the critically acclaimed It Takes Two, which won Game of the Year at The Game Awards in 2021.
In response to a YouTube comment praising the absence of "lootboxes, microtransactions, and BS" in his games, Fares expressed strong concerns about how monetization affects game design. "Every time you make a design decision about taking more money in the game, I think it's a huge problem, and it's stopping our industry from a creative perspective," he stated.
This stance comes at a time when microtransactions have become incredibly profitable for major publishers. For instance, Blizzard's Diablo IV generated over $1 billion in revenue from microtransactions alone. As Dexerto noted, Electronic Arts' (EA) live service features and microtransactions have accounted for approximately 73.5% of their revenue since July 2022, and have made up more than 40% of their revenue since 2024.
Sports titles published by EA, including EA FC, Madden, and College Football, have proven to be particularly lucrative, with players spending substantial amounts on in-game purchases each year.
Nevertheless, Fares' latest project at Hazelight Studios, Split Fiction, launched on March 6 and has received widespread critical acclaim. According to Metacritic, the game has achieved an aggregate score of 90/100, indicating "Universal Acclaim." OpenCritic similarly rated it at 90/100, placing it in the top 1% of all games, with a 98% recommendation rate from 86 critics.
The game continues Fares' tradition of creating unique cooperative experiences that stand apart from the microtransaction-heavy model that dominates much of the gaming industry today.
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