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Hazelight has been on something of a tear lately with its signature co-op adventures. Its latest game, Split Fiction, has been lighting the sales charts on fire and left PC Gamer editor Fraser Brown thoroughly impressed—he called it “one of the greatest co-op games around.” The game is making its requisite victory lap around the headlines, with the latest word on the street being that it smashed three Guinness World Records within a week of its release.
The records—most played local co-op videogame on Steam, most sold local co-op videogame within 48 hours of release, and most sold local co-op videogame within one week of release—all celebrate the game’s dynamite sales numbers, though I’m not sure if they’re including all games that feature local co-op or just ones that emphasize it to the same extent Hazelight games do.
It’s also worth noting that local co-op isn’t compulsory in Split Fiction, and Guinness’ other multiplayer-angled records have mostly to do with MMOs. Though, given that Resident Evil snagged one for worst dialogue in a videogame, and there’s even a record for “first videogame played entirely as a wolf” (awarded to the game Wolf, appropriately), maybe I shouldn’t be taking this so seriously. There’s a whole application process for these things and it’s not like this is going in some exhaustive archive of which co-op games achieved what when.
Either way, the game is clearly rocketing the studio to new thresholds of success. It’s logged hundreds of thousands of concurrent players on Steam (which the Guinness World Records article notes hit 197,434 within 24 hours), and is headed to the big screen as well.
In all honesty, these records are a bit slight in their larger implications for the story of Split Fiction. The article from the Guinness World Records site reads like an enthusiastic advertisement, and “most played local co-op videogame on Steam” is getting awfully specific for a record. That said, Hazelight has come a long way since Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, so it’s hard not to cheer them on in their moment of triumph.
It’s also a vindicating time for the “friend’s pass” business model where only one player needs to buy the game to play it with their co-op partner of choice. Split Fiction might have done just fine without this strategy, but it certainly makes a playthrough an easier sell to any skeptical friends who don’t own it themselves.
If you’d like to see what all the fuss is about, Split Fiction is available to purchase on Steam.
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Kurt Indovina
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