Free Radical Shuts Down

[Zeiram Wing]

kotaku.com/5113037/free-radical-shuts-down

UK developer Free Radical Design, the team behind Haze and the Time Splitters franchise, have closed their doors, apparently permanently, according to a number of inside sources.

The sources confirmed to Kotaku earlier reports that employees were locked out of their offices today in Nottingham. A meeting held later in the day ending with the closure of the independent developer, sources say.

While the shut down was a surprise to some within the company, it sounds like it wasn't to all. We've heard that some Free Radical Design employees were jumping ship in the week or two leading to today's news.

Free Radical's last game, Haze, was widely received as a mediocre game, but the company was working on a follow up for their popular TimeSplitters franchise and rumored to be working on a Star Wars: Battlefront game for LucasArts.

Sources say that the company recently lost the development deal for the LucasArts project, something that could have led to this end of year shut down.

well... i officially have nothing left to live for...

[tangram]

even though i only played ts2 this news is gay indeed
we will just have to wait and see what comes of the ts series i guess?

[Zeiram Wing]

well, there actually may still be some hope for timesplitters 4...

Free Radical Founder Sets Up New Studio

A few months before Free Radical Design cratered, founder Steve Ellis set up a new studio and parked the domain for "Pumpkin Beach." Well, he and 20 former FRD coders now have jobs there.

Smashpad had a source inside the now-closed studio, noted for its TimeSplitters and Haze IPs, who said Pumpkin Beach was set up about four months ago in-house. "We were told that because the project was going to be quite different from Free Radical’s previous games," said Smashpad's source, "they were setting up a new company, sort of a new label for the game, to avoid the associations with TimeSplitters and Haze."

Avoiding associations with the universally-panned Haze? Sound strategy. The source semi-disputed rumors that Lucasarts was most displeased and took away Battlefront III, giving it to Rebellion. But he or she didn't elaborate on them being "not entirely true."

The story also links over to the Unofficial Free Radical Design Blog, which having no Free Radical Design to blog about, continues the story:
Sources explain Dave Doak had left Free Radical Design a month ago. He and Steve Ellis are now looking at creating a new game developer company called Pumpkin Beach. Little is known about their plans for this company but a website, www.pumpkinbeach.com/, has been reserved. It is possible TimeSplitters 4 could be sold to this new company. Maybe this new company was created as a rescue for TimeSplitters 4 but the lack of publisher support makes the idea a risky one.

During the meeting roughly 20 staff positions were offered into the new company for people at Free Radical Design. Codemasters and Monumental Games were also at the hotel used to hold the meeting to ask for CVs and applications for anyone who was interested.

So, there's some reason to be optimistic amongst the fallout; the jettisoned Free Radical employees either have jobs, or decent prospects, and TimeSplitters 4 is at minimum rumor-worthy, which is good, because this swrrt concept art surely needs a home.

and heres some of the concept art he was talking about

nickcarver.blogspot.com/

[Rabid Scotsman]

I loved the TS games! The humor and awesome extra content (platinum trophy-flying monkey madness!)
made it a great game that lasted me a lot longer than most titles do.
Not to mention their side-splitting multiplayer would keep me and friends up all night!
Rooting for an awesome TS revival here!

And Zeiram, "well... i officially have nothing left to live for... I cried a little inside too.
**offers tear-soaked shoulder** ( I need a hug)

[Lýfelíëk Heroblãde]

Woohoo! But I'm sure you've all read this by now...

Here's another development in Crytek's purchase of Free Radical Design. After Rob Yescombe and ReSolve Partners confirmed the sale, it's now Crytek's turn.

Apart from confirming their purchase of the Haze and TimeSplitters developer, Crytek also revealed that Free Radical will be renamed Crytek UK. Here's what Crytek boss Avni Yerli had to say:

"The combination of this team, the Crytek network and our CryENGINE technology will be a foundation for outstanding gaming experiences and a magnet for the best talent in the UK."

Seriously, I can't wait for what Free Rad-,er, Crytek UK's first game will be.

[Zeiram Wing]

yeah, i was just gonna post this! you trying to make me look bad?!

this is good news, but at the same time, A LOT of people were canned at FR, and some others went and started up a new team. not to mention that now crytek calls the shots. i'm gonna need a roll call of who all stayed at FR, cause i know david doak left, and if some other people like Graeme Norgate, or Karl Hilton left, well, that there pretty much would kill the soul of timesplitters. and the name change killed off the teams name recognition. only time will tell if that is a good thing or not...

i'm assuming the current free radical site is going to be removed. i invite everyone to just hop over to www.frd.co.uk/ and look around. theres a ton of funny shit on that site, and you can get a feel of just how funny and creative everyone there was. it will be interesting if crytek uk will be a siriuz bizniz website or if it will try and recapture that FR feel.