Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and A Way Out director Josef Fares is quite passionate about his job. When he showed gameplay for Hazelight’s A Way Out during Electronic Arts’ EA Play presentation in June, it was clear that he believed strongly in his vision for the cooperative adventure, and when he spoke with The Game Awards 2017 producer Geoff Keighley during Thursday’s ceremony, he let his voice be heard in an entertaining, candid, and expletive-laden speech.
After already swearing several times during his praise of the game industry and its developers, Fares, who is also a film director, asked Keighley for his permission to swear before turning to face the camera directly.
“Fuck the Oscars, you know? Fuck the Oscars! Fuck you!” Fares yelled as he crept closer to the camera and displayed his middle finger.
Keighley was visibly uncomfortable with the moment, asking Fares to talk about A Way Out and the unique ways it allows two players to cooperatively experience a story online, but the Fares train had already left the station. Talking about cooperatively playing with only one copy of the game, Fares assured fans that Electronic Arts’ recent controversial decisions regarding loot boxes wouldn’t make their way into his project.
“This is my idea. It doesn’t have anything [to do] with the EA shit going on — with the loot boxes and stuff,” Fares said. “Look, I’m going to say to you one thing: EA has been very good to me. And to be honest with you, it’s been nice to hate EA but I don’t care about that shit. What I’m saying is this — all publishers fuck up sometimes.”
They certainly do, but the publisher’s “EA Originals” program has already produced the charming platformer Unraveled, and A Way Out looks poised to be another success. In an industry typically sanitized with PR-speak and prearranged talking points, Fares’ honesty and commitment to making a game players could enjoy without predatory microtransactions is admirable, even if his language was less than family-friendly.
A Way Out will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on March 28, 2018. It can only be played cooperatively, either in person or online, and uses a unique split-screen camera perspective to focus on two protagonists simultaneously.
