A Way Out ended up living up to its unique co-op action and storytelling potential when it launched last month. It was indeed very surprising to see such a unique game put out by a publisher as otherwise aggressively conservative as EA—but that almost didn’t happen. In fact, according to what the game’s colourful director Josef Fares told IGN in an interview recently, his development studio Hazelight almost signed with Microsoft.
“Brothers opened up a lot of doors,” Fares said to IGN. “I was very close to signing with Microsoft. It was like a week between. We were super close.”
Ultimately, the studio went with EA because of EA’s Patrick Sodurlund reaching out to Fares, sand because EA has offices in Sweden, which is where Hazelight is based, so it felt like a better fit. In spite of this, however, Fares has nothing but good things to say about Microsoft, and especially, Phil Spencer.
“I think that was the best thing that could happen to Microsoft,” he said of Spencer. “That guy is a super cool guy, super passionate about games.”
Spencer indeed has been a positive force for change within Xbox ever since he took the reigns, and it has been fascinating to see him steer Xbox back into the good graces of gamers worldwide. A Way Out is available now on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.