It Takes Two bans single-player — a game where two different abilities force cooperation

Film director Josef Fares founded Hazelight around a stubborn idea after A Way Out: build narrative games that are written and designed from the first sketch as two-player experiences, published by EA — even though almost every major game treats co-op as an add-on to a single-player campaign.

Make co-op the whole product: no single-player mode, and every level gives each character different abilities, so neither player can progress without the other.

Every chapter of Cody and May's story hands the two players different, complementary abilities, and levels are built so both are needed to advance; Friend's Pass lets one buyer invite a second player to play the whole game free, and there is no single-player mode at all.

Released in 2021, It Takes Two won Game of the Year, Best Family Game and Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2021; by 2026 it had sold over 30 million copies, and Hazelight's three co-op games together passed 50 million sales and more than 100 million players.

Most games treat co-op as a mode bolted onto a single-player campaign. Hazelight Studios, founded by film director Josef Fares, chose the opposite: It Takes Two was written and designed from the beginning as a co-op-only game, with no solo option, and published under EA's Originals label.

The design enforces togetherness mechanically. In every chapter, the two protagonists Cody and May receive different abilities, and the levels are built so both are needed to progress. Fares told Inverse the team picked abilities that feel natural, developed them slowly and tested heavily so that communication with the partner becomes essential. Friend's Pass removed the second purchase barrier by letting one buyer invite a friend to play the entire game free.

The bet paid off. It Takes Two won Game of the Year, Best Family Game and Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2021, and its sales kept compounding: by 2026 it had surpassed 30 million copies, with Hazelight's three co-op games together exceeding 50 million sales and 100 million players.

The game's mix of constant mechanical variety and a light-hearted story about a couple saving their marriage turned co-op from a niche feature into a mainstream reason to buy, and Fares has publicly wondered why more studios are not building games this way.

Removing single-player entirely means the whole game is solved for two people from the first sketch, instead of adapting a solo design later.

Asymmetric abilities make both players genuinely necessary, so neither partner can coast — the cooperation is the challenge, not a gimmick.

Friend's Pass turns a purchase into an invitation: one copy creates a two-player experience, removing the biggest barrier to playing together.

A marriage-repair story plus slapstick variety reached couples and non-gamers, expanding co-op beyond its usual shooter audience.

Remove the escape hatch: by refusing a single-player mode and giving each player different tools, Hazelight made cooperation the entire product — and the constraint became the brand.

Hazelight followed with Split Fiction in 2025, which passed 7 million copies within a year, and the studio confirmed it was already at work on a new project with EA as publisher. Josef Fares has kept arguing publicly that co-op-first design is underused, and It Takes Two's 30-million-copy run has become the evidence for his thesis.