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OXCGN writer looks at the death of yet another development studio, this time Free Radical Design. Those great guys behind the time honoured Timesplitters franchise.
But feel flat on their recent outing, HAZE, which garnered poor reviews from both gamers and the industry. What if they had of simply focused on Timesplitters 4, which had been in production for well over a year, what will happen to the playful shooter of old, will we only see serious shooters lining the shelves from now on?
All these questions and more are asked, what is your take on the matter?
A short while ago I asked if game studios take too great a risk when they depart from their staple product, and used Free Radical as one of my primary examples. Had they made another Timesplitters game instead of Haze, would they have fared better?
timesplitters-4According to another source quoted by Gamespot, Haze was a major reason for Free Radicals present situation. The source said:
They had already started working on TimeSplitters 4, and had been for over a year, but due to the failure of Haze and the deal falling through with Lucas, they couldnt get a publisher to back them.
The Timesplitters games were revered for their fun, cute, fast-paced, bot-filled multiplayer modes set in a variety of exotic and excellently designed locals. The characters you could play were hilarious and varied from zombies to monkeys. My sons and I still play Timesplitters 2 (Gamecube version); thats how enduring the game has been for us.
News story attached to:
- TimeSplitters [PS2]
- TimeSplitters 4 [PS3, PC, XBOX360]
- TimeSplitters: Future Perfect [Xbox, PS2, GC]
- TimeSplitters 2 [GC, Xbox, PS2]
Comments
I never picked up Timesplitters 3 though as it didn't interest met hat much. This however is a real shame that Timesplitters 4 will not be released due to HAZE being a failure (well it wasn't justa filure it was absolutely bloody terrible, looked nice but gameplay sucked big time).
Lets hpe someone will pick the game up (Timesplitters 4) and finish the project.
At first I thought that would be a bad idea, but when I compare TS2 to TS:Future Perfect, then to Haze, I think the original team wasn't going to positive places with the series, and maybe a new dev team wouldn't be such a bad idea.
Free Radical Employees Say It's Not Over for Studio
Staff member tells 1UP two secret projects getting a lot of publisher interest.
By Emma Boyes, 12/19/2008
Yesterday, shock reports began to circulate that independent UK-based developer Free Radical Design had suddenly and unceremoniously closed its doors just before the holiday season. But according to employees, the TimeSplitters developer remains open for business and there is still hope that a solution can be found for its woes.
An employee who wishes to remain anonymous wanted to set things straight to 1up. They said that contrary to reports, "Free Radical has *not* closed. There's still a skeleton crew of guys staying on maintaining business as usual, and nobody's been formally made redundant." It is believed that about 20 staff members are manning the fort in the company's four office buildings in Nottingham, with the remaining 160 or so being asked to stay at home.
The team remain hopeful that a solution can be reached and everything will be back to normal in the new year. Our source repeats, "They're not closed. The intention is, going forwards, that hopefully the skeleton crew can shock things back to life in the new year and things can ramp back up from there. But they are *not* out of business."
Free Radical went into administration on December 18. Administration is a process in the UK that a company which has become insolvent can choose instead of liquidation to continue running the business. The administration company acts in the interest of creditors and attempts to rescue its charge. ReSolve, the administration company tasked with rescuing Free Radical commented that it was "very confident" that a buyer could be found for the business if a decision is made to sell.
Officially, Free Radical Design is currently working on two games--TimeSplitters 4, and a secret LucasArts project rumored to be Star Wars Battlefront III (and also rumored to have been turned over to other UK dev Rebellion instead). However, our source implies that there may be more projects underway which have not yet been announced. They told 1up, "There's a number of cool projects in development--two of which are getting quite a lot of publisher interest already." It is not known if TimeSplitters 4, which the company has been working on for over a year, is one of these.
From the sound of it the fat lady hasn't even gotten out of bed yet for Free Radical, much less started to sing.
If not...
Goodnight sweet prince.
However, I do hope that Timesplitters 4 does get made somehow and remains true to the franchise.
There's usually no coming back from that once that happens (going into receivership)
Yes, there is a skeleton stff there, and the website is even still up, but as a financial entity, it is very unlikely that it will survie as it once did.
With several ( a lot) of the original staff and designers making their own studio, Pumkin Beach, the creative drive being Timesplitters has moved on, and according to them (Pumkin Beach) they will NOT be making any games associated with Timesplitters or HAZE.
Ideally an investment firm or major publisher will pick up what is left of FRD and invest in it, but the IP will not have the same ppl behind it as the original did. That is of course IF a publishing house picks it up.
You can't fib an=bout going into receivership sadly, as that IS a step that IS taken when winding up any company. So as much as some might say "now, we're still here" etc, the fact is that the company is being wound up.
I will add that update to the article , and thanks for that, as all information should be made available to readers.
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