REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 6, 2025--
The co-op masterminds are back! Today, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) and Hazelight Studios invite players to embark on an action-packed buddy adventure in Split Fiction, available now on PlayStation ® 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store and EA app for $49.99. The title has achieved universal acclaim on Metacritic and earned perfect scores from more than 26 media, including Variety, TechRadar Gaming and GameSpot, who called it “a hilarious, compassionate, and delightful new benchmark for multiplayer experiences.” Split Fiction is the #1 Best-Reviewed Game of 2025 so far.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250306895584/en/
In Split Fiction, players take on the roles of Mio and Zoe as they traverse through vibrant sci-fi and fantasy worlds, working together and uncovering the power of unexpected friendship. Hazelight Studios, the creative minds behind the 2021 Game of the Year winner It Takes Two (23 million units sold worldwide), takes its proven co-op formula to the next level in Split Fiction with more gameplay variety than ever before.
“ Split Fiction is filled with the wildest stuff you’ll ever see in a co-op game. The gameplay variety is insane and I’m incredibly proud of the level of polish that we managed to do,” said Josef Fares. “You’re going to visit some really incredible sci-fi and fantasy worlds, collaborate, and have a lot of fun - you guys are gonna love it.”
Mio and Zoe are aspiring writers who are trapped in a machine designed to steal their creative ideas. The two must set aside their differences to break out of the simulation of their own stories. Along the way, they will discover new mechanics and abilities in every level of their adventure. Escape a sun that’s going supernova, challenge a monkey to a dance battle, try out some cool hoverboard tricks, fight an evil kitty, and ride everything from gravity bikes to a sandshark. Experience worlds that are entirely different from each other, unexpected new abilities, and a range of gameplay that includes platforming, puzzles, and more.
As players journey through different landscapes, they will encounter mysterious portals that lead to Side Stories: brief, optional twists on gameplay that launch Mio and Zoe into unfinished drafts and creative story concepts from their writing, varying up the gameplay even further. Players won’t want to miss climbing a giant-infested mountain, surfing across the desert on the backs of sand sharks, or waterskiing behind a flying train.
“ Split Fiction is a bombastic, no-holds-barred celebration of what video games do best – entertain!” said Jeff Gamon, General Manager of EA Partners. “Once again, Josef and the fantastic team at Hazelight have proven themselves champions of cooperative adventure gaming. I’m as confident as anyone could be that gamers, their friends, families and loved ones will lose themselves completely in this extraordinary co-op journey.”
Split Fiction can be played cooperatively with local multiplayer or online using Friend’s Pass, a staple feature from Hazelight Studios that allows players who own a copy of the game to invite a friend to play the full game with them for free. As with the base game, cross-play options are enabled for Friend’s Pass on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
Split Fiction is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store and EA app for $49.99. The game is rated ESRB TEEN and PEGI 16.
For more information on Split Fiction, visit: https://www.ea.com/games/split-fiction/split-fiction.
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About Hazelight Studios
Creators of the Game of the Year 2021, It Takes Two, Hazelight is a multiple award-winning independent game development studio based in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded in 2014 by Josef Fares, film director and creator of the critically acclaimed game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Hazelight is committed to pushing the creative boundaries of what is possible in games. In 2018, Hazelight released A Way Out, the first-ever co-op-only third-person action-adventure, as part of the EA Originals program.
About EA Originals
EA Originals celebrates those who dare to explore.
These studios forge new ways to play by bringing together developers with bold visions. Here, these developers use their artistic freedom to reach players who will treasure the new experiences they’ve created.
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) is a global leader in digital interactive entertainment. The Company develops and delivers games, content and online services for Internet-connected consoles, mobile devices and personal computers.
In fiscal year 2024, EA posted GAAP net revenue of approximately $7.6 billion. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, EA is recognized for a portfolio of critically acclaimed, high-quality brands such as EA SPORTS FC™, Battlefield™, Apex Legends™, The Sims™, EA SPORTS™ Madden NFL, EA SPORTS™ College Football, Need for Speed™, Dragon Age™, Titanfall™, Plants vs. Zombies™ and EA SPORTS F1®. More information about EA is available at www.ea.com/news.
EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS FC, Battlefield, Need for Speed, Apex Legends, The Sims, Dragon Age, Titanfall, and Plants vs. Zombies are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. John Madden, NFL, FIFA and F1 are the property of their respective owners and used with permission.
Split Fiction (Photo: Business Wire)
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a lightning military strike, the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and spirited them out of the country to face justice in the United States.
Now President Donald Trump says the U.S. is “going to run” Venezuela until a transition of power can take place, but it's not clear what that will mean on the ground in the South American country.
The overnight operation left Venezuela reeling, with its leadership uncertain and details of casualties and the impact on its military still to emerge. Much is still unknown about how the U.S. ouster of Maduro will ricochet across the country and the region.
Here’s what we know — and what we don’t.
Explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, early Saturday. At least seven blasts were heard in an attack that lasted less than 30 minutes. The targets appeared to include military infrastructure.
Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández said Maduro and Flores were captured at their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation outside Caracas.
Venezuelan officials said people had been killed, but the scale of casualties was unclear.
The attack followed months of escalating pressure by the Trump administration, which has built up naval forces in the waters off South America and since early September has carried out deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean. Late last month, the CIA carried out a drone strike at a docking area alleged to have been used by drug cartels.
Trump said during a news conference Saturday the U.S. would run the country and gestured to officials arrayed behind him, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and said they’d be the ones doing it “for a period of time.”
Trump claimed the American presence was already in place, although across Venezuela's capital there were no signs that the U.S. had taken control of the government or military forces.
Trump claimed that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez had been sworn in as president shortly before he spoke to reporters and added she had spoken with Rubio.
“She is essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. Very simple,” Trump said.
Rodriquez made no mention of talking to Rubio or being sworn in during a televised address after Trump's news conference.
Instead, she demanded the U.S. free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader. Rodriquez left open the door for dialogue with the U.S., while seeking to calm ruling party supporters.
“Here, we have a government with clarity, and I repeat and repeat again … we are willing to have respectful relations,” she said, referring to the Trump administration. “It is the only thing we will accept for a type of relationship after having attacked (Venezuela).”
Armed individuals and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party. But in other areas of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack. Parts of the city remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.
Trump offered no details on what U.S. leadership in Venezuela would mean or specify whether it would involve more military involvement.
The State Department did not immediately respond to questions about how the U.S. would run Venezuela, what authority it would use to administer it or whether it would involve any American personnel — either civilian or military — on the ground in Caracas or other areas of Venezuela.
Trump mentioned the country's oil infrastructure repeatedly during the news conference. He suggested there would be a substantial U.S. role in Venezuela's oil industry, saying that U.S. oil companies would go in and fix the broken infrastructure.
And Trump said the U.S. would use revenues from oil sales to pay for running the country.
“We’re going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend,” he said.
According to an indictment made public Saturday, Maduro is charged alongside his wife, his son and three others. Maduro is indicted on four counts: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Authorities allege powerful and violent drug trafficking organizations, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang, worked directly with the Venezuelan government and then sent profits to high-ranking officials who helped and protected them in exchange.
It was not immediately clear when Maduro and his wife would make their first court appearance in New York or where they would be detained once in the U.S.
Trump gave some details of the operation during a Saturday morning interview on “Fox and Friends," and he and Caine went into more depth during the news conference.
Trump said a few U.S. members of the operation were injured but he believed no one was killed.
He said Maduro was “highly guarded” in a presidential palace akin to a “fortress” and he tried to get to a safe room but wasn’t able to get there in time.
Trump said U.S. forces practiced the operation ahead of time on a replica building, and the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights in Caracas,” although he didn’t detail how they accomplished that.
Caine said the mission had been “meticulously planned” for months, relying on work by the U.S. intelligence community to find Maduro and detail how he moved, lived, ate and what he wore.
The mission involved more than 150 aircraft launched across the Western Hemisphere, Caine said. Helicopters came under fire as they approached “the target area,” he said, and responded with “overwhelming force.”
The U.S. does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, and the legal implications of the strike under U.S. law were not immediately clear.
The Trump administration maintains that Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela and claims he has effectively turned Venezuela into a criminal enterprise at the service of drug traffickers and terrorist groups.
Mike Lee, a U.S. senator from Utah, said on X that the action “likely falls within the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack.”
But some Democrats were more critical.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, said in a statement, “President Trump’s unauthorized military attack on Venezuela to arrest Maduro — however terrible he is — is a sickening return to a day when the United States asserted the right to dominate the internal political affairs of all nations in the Western Hemisphere.”
Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado had intended to run against Maduro in the 2024 presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. She went into hiding and wasn't seen for nearly a year.
Trump said Saturday that he hadn't been in touch with Machado and said it would be “very tough” for her to lead Venezuela.
“She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect,” Trump said.
Lawless reported from London. Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this story.
FILE - President Nicolas Maduro acknowledges supporters alongside first lady Cilia Flores during his closing election campaign rally in Caracas, Venezuela, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
Pro-government armed civilians patrol in La Guaira, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that President Nicolás Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro embrace in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
Men watch smoke rising from a dock after explosions were heard at La Guaira port, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
