Free Radical Design, the English-based development team behind PS2 classic TimeSplitters, have closed up shop. In what can only be regarded as a result of several factors – from the current economic climate, to the failure of their most recent project – the gaming industry has lost one of its finest players in an unfortunate fall of grace.
The story of their downfall, and an obituary of sorts (as much of an obituary as you can write for a development team) await after the the jump.
The story goes, from as many sources as you can imagine, that Free Radical Design’s employees turned up to the office’s front doors in Nottingham only to find that the doors were locked, and that the locks for said locked doors had been changed to stop anybody getting in. What’s more, security staff were on site to prevent anybody from even trying to get in, and notices were given to employees telling them to attend a meeting at a nearby hotel at 12 noon that day.
At the meeting, co-founder Steve Ellis – who set up the company with other ex-Rare employees following the release of N64 classic GoldenEye - revealed that the company had been in trouble for the past 6 months and had failed to find a buyer or a publisher for TimeSplitters 4; which publisher was insane enough not to take that on? Ellis also confirmed that all but 20 of Free Radical’s employees would be laid off, with those left offered a job at Ellis’ new development team Pumpkin Beach.
The breakdown has been said to have been gradual over a long period of time: several employees had already left for nearby development studios (and others were at the hotel meeting to recruit newly-unemployed staff). A rumour of a deal with Lucasarts to produce the next Star Wars Battlefront has fallen through, if it even existed at all.
Essentially, the company has been in turmoil for some time – with other co-founder/public face of the company David Doak leaving at the start of the month – and while it’s sad to see it shut up shop so suddenly, a delve into their background reveals that they’ve been in trouble for a while.
Of course, this might mean nothing to you if you have no idea who Free Radical are, or what they’ve made. A little history of one of my favorite (former) developers follows on page 2. If you just want the conclusion of this article, skip to page 3.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Well, according to their ‘administrator’, they aren’t dead yet. Still around 40 team members working on getting publishers for their various work, or so I’ve heard.
Bummer.
NOOOOO They can’t not make Timesplitters 4
@Frosted Just because Free Radical is as dead as a doorknob doesn’t mean that somebody can’t rescue a franchise. What about Pumpkin Beach?
Me so sad! I love the TimeSplitters games. I have all three, and thought they were all awesome. The best arcade FPS of last gen IMO. There were so many modes, customization options and general wackiness that came out of that series. Shame about Free Radical.
wait wait wait!, haze was bad??
but seriously though, it wasn’t a bad game, just i guess it didn’t live up to the hype, but i enjoyed it, and i am probably going to give it another play through.
They’re in Administration. This is not available in the US, so to be honest I don’t expect the article contributor to know.
Admin is basically ‘Last stop’ for businesses, where the company is handed to an administrator, and said administrator tries to find a buyer for the company. It’s not over /yet/. Most of the staff are on an extended holiday.
Not to mention that Pumpkin Beach, the Founder of Free Radical’s new studio, could snap up anyone that gets laid off, and might even make a pitch for the games that were half-developed by FR.
This is a very sad day for gamers, Timesplitters and Halo are the best FPS’s made…ever. Now the company who made Timesplitters is gone. Free Radical, you will be missed.
But there is still hope, off in the distance, there is a company named Pumpkin Beach; will they prevail, succeed and anwser our dreams, one can hope…