Rumor: Free Radical Design closes shop

by Jem Alexander on Dec 18th 2008 9:30AM

It's being reported by various UK based news sites that Free Radical, developer of the TimeSplitters series and Haze, has closed its doors for good. No one has received confirmation from the developer either way, as they don't seem to be answering their phones, but judging from anecdotal evidence, it's not looking good. Forum-goers over at Eurogamer are saying that the locks on the doors have been changed and Develop's sources are saying "something" happened at the developer this morning.

Develop is posturing that the closure, if true, is probably a result of Haze being a commercial and critical flop. Not only that, but the word is that their Lucasarts collaberation (Star Wars BattleFront 3) is reported to have been cancelled and they were having trouble finding a publisher for TimeSplitters 4. Sadly, it seems that game will now never see the light of day. We'll update this story as soon as we get confirmation either way but, as we say, it's not looking good. It's a sad day and we feel for anyone who has lost their job -- especially this close to Christmas.

[UPDATE] We've received confirmation that Free Radical has, indeed, closed its doors. This is no longer a rumor. GameIndustry.biz is reporting that Star Wars Battlefront 3 has been passed on to PSP Battlefront developer Rebellion.

Source

Tags: free-radical, Haze, rumor, timesplitters-4

Reader Comments (46)

terrible terrible news

In this sad time, I can only respond with:

BOOSH

LOOOL

It's never good to hear of developers closing, especially as you said at this time of year and in this climate.
Timesplitters was a good series, its a shame we will never see the 4th one.
Hopefully the staff will be scooped up by other developers and do well with them.

That's probably the problem all the good staff were scooped
up a long time ago leaving the dead wood to suffer their fate.

They won't be the last developer to go under, next year will see a few more going.

oh trust me, a lot of them will get picked up or get together and start a new company. that's how a lot of current devs got started. if i remember correctly, media molecule was started by former lionhead employees. i just hope those jobs come soon for them, especially considering the current economy. and the news about star wars bf3 moving on instead of being outright cancelled is good.

That is sad news for those people, it's not just the developers that get affected too -- other support staff, management, etc.

Hopefully they will pull a move like "Infinity Ward" did, create a new studio and make millions.... or, hey since we're hoping... maybe they'll win the lottery and not need to work... :)

Yeah but Infinity Ward had a good game (or landed one with COD4). Haze was crap and it's hard to imagine that FR didn't know this the whole time they were making it.

I don't have alot of faith that the ex-FR guys will have anything magical up their sleeves. I guess they can always go to work for Ninja Theory.

Didn't see this coming at all. Indeed it is sad to see another studio shut down during this economic crisis. Good luck to all. Haze was not as bad as it was made out to be, or as good as it should have been. The cancelation of Star Wars Battlefront 3 is a bummer though.

I spent countless of hours playing the Battlefront games on the PS2, especially three years ago when I was playing Battlefront 2 with my cousin during the school's Christmas break. In fact, it's one of the only PS2 games that share the spotlight along with my PS3 games in the drawer. It's a shame if this is the end of the road for the series, but et's just hope the game gets picked up by a good developer.

@ JPJ

same here. battlefront II is in my ps3 more than 75% of my games. but at least battlefront 3 is going to another dev instead of being outright cancelled. that's great.

I preferred SWB1 to SWB2. While the added features were all cool on paper, none worked as well as they should have. The Jedi controls seemed awkward, the space combat was frustrating, and I never got the hang of the lock-on button.

And not being able to give specific commands to the bots was terrible.

Oh fucking hell, I was hoping to have a placement year there in September... Gah... I really hope this is not true, they are a good developer, one duff game shouldn't put them down. Look at Sonic Team, they deserve to have been taken out the back and shot by the world's angriest Russian firing squad years ago.

Yeah, but look at the fanbase for Sonic and how many idiots buy the games despite being crappy.

Free Radical had a lot of hype put into Haze (wasn't there a deal with Korn?) And I wouldn't be surprised if that game is what did them in, sales and credibility wise.

Apparently they went to work and the building was locked up with a note saying to go to a nearby hotel for a meeting. Can you imagine the gut wrenching feeling that would give you... and only 1 WEEK before holidays. Geez, if I knew it was that bad and they were going to axe people just before Christmas I might have even bought HAZE...

NOO!! what ever will happen to HAZE 2?

Hopefully someone else picks up that IP.

I enjoyed Haze.

I have always said that if that game had the graphical eye candy, it would have been a hit.

On SWB3 news, I am glad to see the game is not discontinued.

This is the worst news ever! Free Radical was an exceptional developer. TS4 was my most anticipated game. If this is Lucasarts fault they need a swift throat punch!

I'm pretty sure that Timesplitters 4 and Star Wars Battlefront will be picked up by another developer. The real problem here is that we have to hope that they don't mess with the formula.

Thank you for that ray of hope my good sir.

TimeSplitters is unlikely unless Free Radical's IPs are liquidated and/or are carried over to whatever studio Doak and company start up.

Really hope this isn't true though...

Here here! I loved the timesplitters games sooo much. There are too many shooters these days that take themselves too seriously. TS was just humour with a bunch of guns. What other game would have one the characters yell "I said nooo ketchup!" when selected (ah oleg, what a lege). If it is true (seems very possible) then it is very sad indeed, and as Wizzleteet said, if this is lucasarts fault then I may have to hunt down and kill Mr. Lucas. Heck, it wouldn't be his only crime against humanity.

Think nothing of it, lad. Tis the season. I too would miss these game if they were to disappear but fret not, they won't. A gentleman like yourself with such exquisite taste in games would be a benefit on the battlefield feel free to add me: PSN: Gaucho21 (I am turning 23 this sunday, only now do I see the folly of having put my age and not my birth year)

Soviet chick, on a scale from 1-10 how single are you? 10 being "super single and for some unexplainable reason into guys that use "Gaucho" as their online IDs" and 1 being "not single but still totally into guys that use "Gaucho" as their online IDs."

so...what are we to miss here?

Haze may have sucked, but the TimeSplitters series was a hell of a lot of fun. Try to get your hands on a copy of TimeSplitters 2, then you'll see why everyone was waiting for a next-gen sequel. That was a FUN multiplayer FPS; it was nothing like today's overly intense slaughterfests.

Lot's of love for Second Sight and TimeSplitters / TimeSplitters 2, hope the creative team can start a new studio if this turns out to be true.

If TimeSplitters doesn't continue, we can at least know there will almost certainly be a spiritual successor that one-ups it in almost every way (See: TimeSplitters is to GoldenEye 007...).

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo :'( TS4 :'(
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sad news

it's just a shame they didn't make Timesplitters 4 before Haze, then they might not have had to close down.

I was thinking exactly the same thing. Its the iconic game that made the company what it was... I mean is, yes, yes, is... of course. IS is what I meant.

On the other hand, isn’t that what we often curse development companies for? That they choose sequels over creative new IPs?

But yeah, when this is the conclusion… Such a shame.

Hope we’ll get more details as to the exact reasons that this happened.

Nooooo! Some company needs to pick up Battlefront 3, lest I cry all over myself.

I was expecting this speculation after it was confirmed that the online servers for haze would go offline, its a shame really.

This is the worst Gaming news I have ever been around for. I can't even believe it. I was one of the people sending e-mails for them to do an HD TS2....wow. Timesplitters was the only game on any stystem that made me, and my brothers, feel like we did on the N64. I hope some good news comes out of this and I pray for all the famillies that this will certainly effect.

Seems like there's a lot of confusion over this, Rob Yescombe is saying that they aren't closing...

http://news.spong.com/article/16788/Free_Radical_Were_Not_Closed?cb=83

Wasn't Time Splitters Voted to go on the PS3 from the public ? and if that is true .. then this is sad. it would be nice to get TS IP added too the Sony name. anyone else agree. i still like too see it a PS3 Exclusive

So let me see Haze shuts down Free Radical, Lair shuts down Factor 5? Did I get this right?

Last I heard, Factor 5 had layoffs, but did not shut down.

The stakes are higher in gaming and the economy is difficult. I think developers are going to be wary of taking risks for a while.

So that leave's the only PS3 software studios in England as;
Media Molecule
Sony Liverpool
Sony London
Rockstar Leeds
We're running out people :( . (I may have missed some like)

This is pretty crappy. I was very disappointed with Haze, but I was willing to forget that even happened and was really anticipating TimeSplitters 4.

Thanks alot gaystation 3! Your garbage game haze made Free radical go out of business! Now i'll never get to play timesplitters 4. This is just great, ps3 ruined my christmas.

yeah ps3DO did it again....

How could you even continue on a game like Haze ? 3-4 years development?

It was just a bad choice that never should have been.
RIP TS4 RIP

No more Time Splitters then :(.

Sad to see such a nice development studio close down. Was really looking forward to the new Time Splitters too…

Guess they shouldn't have split from Rare and exclusively supported the PS3.

...because Rare's games since Microsoft bought them and made them exclusive to the Xbox have been so good.

Rumor: Free Radical Design closes shop

Reader Comments (46)

Posted: Dec 18th 2008 9:45AM (Unverified) said

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