Jump to content

Free Radical Design goes under


Blue123
 Share

Recommended Posts

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/free-radical-design-latest-to-face-financial-trouble

http://www.edge-online.com/features/source-free-radical-locked-up

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/free-radical-design-closes-doors

So, apparently, Free Radical are closed for business. Has anyone else heard about this? I think it's a pretty sad thing, as FR made TimeSplitters, which is perhaps one of the most enjoyable series I've played through... the humour and wackyness of the games was just pure bliss. It's a pity to see a zany and (moar than others) original studio.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gotta agree with you there. TimeSplitters was such a unique series. The humor and characters are absolutely hilarious. Gameplay was tight as well.

Sad to see such a great developer die so suddenly just because of one flop. If only they focused on the new TimeSplitters and canceled Haze...

Oh well, I hope the new company that rises from its ashes gets to work on something soon. It's too bad that we won't see the new TimeSplitters, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh no... this is the worst news ever. TimeSplitters is my favourite FPS series. Their official website doesn't even have a mere mention of any of this, so I hope we soon get a definitive answer about the game's future. First Nintendo starts making crap games, and now this. What a year...

Edit: seems like an employee who posts at timesplitters4.net confirmed that it's pretty much all true.

I guess I should have seen it coming, with all the jokes in the letters section (about them needing to sell another million copies of Haze). TS4 was the only game that I was really looking forward to. Hopefully the rights get bought by someone who won't butcher the franchise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With the way the economy is going, I wonder where most game companies will be at by the time this is all sorted out (if it ever even is). EA isn't fairing so well, and I actually feel bad for them. They were just starting to go and make original titles, and this is what they get for exploring new IP. Watch Rare go under next (the way most of their games are going, I'll be surprised if Microsoft doesn't give them the axe).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, truly disappointing. I loved TS2 and 3. Is there absolutely no hope for the 4th one?

It's always possible that the studio will either be annexed into a second party, or that the IP will be bought by some other gaming company. However, with these tough financial times, I don't really see that happening (but obviously I'm hoping very much that it does). If economic conditions were stable, I would assume maybe EA or Microsoft would consider buying them out (or again, just the TS series, since Haze and Second Sight are pretty useless, even though the latter was a decent game).

This closure is really too bad, some of the most talented people in the industry were at this studio. So again, there's always hope, but I'd guess if it came to fruition, the series would be radically (:tomatoface:) different from its current form, which is truly a shame.

Edit: Just found this

http://gonintendo.com/?p=66857

Steve Ellis and David Doak have started up another company, Pumpkin Beach, and are staffing it with select Free Radical employees.

http://www.pumpkinbeach.com/

Nothing on it yet, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Wow no one knew about this? This was announced months ago, apparently one day the doors to Free Radical were closed and they were given directions to a hotel or something where they had a company hearing, where everyone was told they were not gonna be with the business anymore but Doak and the other...important guy with him said they were handpicking guys from that team for a new company. At this place were representatives of other companies such as Codemasters who were taking in resumes from the axed staff.

Edit - btw what were they thinking with Haze? The demo was rubbish and there was nothing special about it, I would've hoped it would be the next perfect dark but no.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...