Split Fiction and the State of Co-op Games in 2026
Hazelight keeps proving that a co-op game with no live service, no monetisation and no solo mode can sell in the millions. The rest of the genre has noticed.
What is worth your time and what is not.
Hazelight keeps proving that a co-op game with no live service, no monetisation and no solo mode can sell in the millions. The rest of the genre has noticed.
The first half of 2026 has been unusually strong for smaller releases, and the discovery problem is worse than ever. A few worth going out of your way for.
It launched into chaos, spent a year alternating between triumph and self-inflicted crisis, and is currently in better shape than most of its 2024 contemporaries.
Remaking the game most often named the best of its generation was an obviously bad idea. Three years on it's still the benchmark everything else gets measured against.
Thirteen seasons in, the pattern is clear enough to rank. One of them genuinely fixed the game, and several since have been circling the same ideas.
Two and a half years, one poorly received expansion and a PS5 release later, the gap between what Starfield promised and what it is has not really closed.
It sold in numbers almost nothing else that year matched, then went quiet for a long time. Three years on it's easier to see what it did well.
The highest rated expansion critics have ever scored, and a Mixed rating on Steam in its first week. Both of those things were true for a reason.
The comeback story is well worn by now. The more interesting question is which of the original problems the rebuild fixed, and which it did not.