About two and a half years ago the team behind Timesplitters was brought back to life by Embracer Group, but it isn't going to get to release its new entry in the classic FPS franchise after all. Just like the rumours said last month, Free Radical Design is shutting down.
The company's website now displays a rather sad image containing the message "404 company not found", and while it hasn't put an official statement out at the time of writing, some of the team's developers have begun posting about the closure.
One dev says "it's been a great 2 and a quarter years at Free Radical Design" but they're "sad to see us go", while another employee is grateful for the "good memories and experience" gained since 2021's Free Radical revival.
Thanks to a reply on that first post there, we also know that the studio is fully closed rather than suffering from a round of layoffs or something of that ilk. Seemingly, Free Radical Design is no more once again.
Where the team or the franchise goes from here remains to be seen. After going on an absolute spending spree, Embracer Group has begun to severely cut back on its operations - going ahead with huge layoffs across multiple studios in 2023.
Are you gutted that we won't get this new Timesplitters title? Drop your thoughts on this unfortunate news down below.
Comments 15
I’m sad they are closing the studio. I would have liked to of seen what the team came up with. I feel for all the people losing their jobs. It’s devastating.
Absolutely gutted about this. Free Radical were an amazing studio and I would have loved to see them complete their comeback. Phil? Are you there? Got any change leftover from the ActiBlizz purchase?!
Seems like the Embracer group bought up every studio just to put them all down. Was that the grand master plan after all?
If anything embracer needs to be layed off out of the industry with the special money that was gifted to them whilst doing nothing with it.
@ATaco maybe. Shut the studios, get rid of the costs, but keep all the IPs (Timesplitters, Saint’s Row). Then license them out and get that passive income.
Ok I have no idea what i’m talking about but it sounds possible!
F*** Embracer.
That is all
Looks like they weren't able to find a buyer. That's not terribly a surprising with the current global economy. I would be curious to see what state the timesplitters reboot is in. Maybe another team will pick up the baton but I'm not holding my breathe.
Embracer was the one to give the team a chance and spun up this studio just a couple years ago. Those were very different times for Embracer. It's commendable that they wanted to invest in this IP and appeared to want to do it right with the original core team. It's unfortunate it didn't work out.
And I hear Fntastic (or whatever the studio was called) have shut down too after the massive disappointment and feedback from the Day Before...
So many Studios seem to be in trouble but how many of the 'creators' of those great games remain? I expect many have moved to other Studio's or set up their own 'independent' Studio to create 'games' they want to make, not get stuck making more of the 'same' game year after year after year.
No one likes to hear of job losses etc so I wish everyone luck in seeking alternative employment and whilst it is 'sad' the Studio has gone, I hope we see some new studios come along.
Visceral, creators of Dead Space, got closed down - but went on to create Sledgehammer games. The head of which left to create Striking Distance (creators of the Callisto Project). The creators of CoD are no longer at IW either so whilst some may disappear, others aren't the 'same' Studio anymore and/or become a 'new' Studio...
Damn this sucks. Hopefully they will be able to create a new studio and carry on Free Radical's legacy.
Timesplitters series are 2 if my favorite games of all time. Sad to see the studio that made them get shuttered.
Really sad. Timesplitters 2 and Future Perfect are my two favourite FPS and haven’t been beaten for split screen fun. Would have loved a new game or even a remastered collection of the best of the old games.
They haven't made a game in years guys. It sucks they lost their jobs but how long did they actually think they could go on without any products coming? Look at their wiki. They have been dormant for awhile. It's business. Staff remaining should have seen this coming.
Some good memories.
@MattWithoutFear I know it's both easy, and in vogue, to blame Embracer but there is a reason they were up for sale / closed several times in the last decade. The last full game they released was Warface in 2014 a game that failed. Before that they assisted on Crysis 1-3 ports and multiplayer with Crytek. Their penultimate game they made alone was Haze in 2008, another critical and financial failure. It's a results led industry and they sadly haven't had them.
Reality is it's been almost two decades since Timesplitters: Future Perfect. They just aren't the studio we remember.
@themightyant all fair comments and I am definitely guilty of oversimplifying things with my comment. That said, they are still the latest in a long line of victims of Embracers over-ambition in terms of acquisition and clear lack of planning for what they acquired.
@MattWithoutFear I do partly agree. But I also think we have to look at the calibre of studios Embracer acquired. A lot of them were living off their historic name, were already on the way down, or already in financial trouble, which is the only reason why Embracer were able to afford them in the first place.
Looked at through another lens you could say that Embracer just prolonged their life a little longer than if they never purchased them, it didn't seem like suitors or saviours were lining up in most cases. They were often the only one willing to give many of these studios another chance.
I think Embracer's plan was to buy low and hope a few of them make a hit that would help to fund everything else, sadly that hasn't happened. I don't think you can have a masterplan or micromanage that many studios, nor should you really, game development should be creative led where possible.
End of the day it sucks to see another studio lost, but for this one the writing has regrettably been on the wall for a long long time.
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