'Significant interest' shown in purchasing Free Radical

Not to mention, I don't know anyone who lives in their mom's basement and spends time trolling on Joystiq with enough money to do so.

First of all, what is a mom and how do you get a basement in a flat on the posh side of the city?

Mom is the lady who used to use your mouth as an ashtray.

Say it like you mean it.

Actually, a fair number of them aren't - the co-founders left to form a new company a short time ago and I think they took a few key people with them. Doesn't necessarily mean that the ones still there are useless but it's pretty disheartening.

I do remember playing Timesplitters 2 on my Xbox...fair enough it was modded, but I don't remember them playing PS2 games.

If MacGyver was on hand they could have got back into their office using that

No, but that'll get you Midway.

Well, I disagree, but you make a solid point.

that time of the month?

You ok man?

+1 just for the hell of it

Hear, hear!

For me, Time splitters was absolutely fabously as a console shoot 'em up for it's time: Goldeneye-type multiplayer, with tons of customisation, and dry wit, that was actually funny (Try killing Elvis!).

My one only grip that it wasn't on the Pc, where' I'm most at home on, but even *I* had a PS2!

Hopefully not tempting fate, but I would imagine another time splitters would be awesome, if not uterly silly ;)

I could be okay with that...

That would be sweet!!!

I came here to post that. If Nintendo would buy these guys, then buy back Factor 5....they'd be all set to just destroy this generation

It would make more sense, but probably won't happen. I mean, certainly EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Sony, Microsoft, etc. have enough FPS talent to go around. Nintendo should certainly be in the market for more resources period, considering all the profit they're swimming in, but how thin their current resources are being spread (as evidenced by three straight quarters that have been light on the first-party releases)

TimeSplitters shines in its multiplayer modes, and I'd hate to see it bogged down with friend codes and, let's face it, lower online quality. I'd rather see a third party pick it up and go multi-platform.

also, i was checking out his portfolio and it seems that he's posted some in-game art for Star Wars Battlefront 3. So I guess that's conclusive evidence that they were working on BF3 and TS4.

http://www.richardjohnsmith.co.uk/shara.html

Hey, you're right - latest news Joystiq seems to have about Factor 5 was when they laid off about half their staff last week, apparently after not paying them for quite a while.

A quick google search suggests that the main source of the Factor 5 shutting down story was a message by Matt Casamassina on the IGN forums a couple of days ago. Fairly easy to miss, given it's a weekend and there's been no official statement, I guess. FR's probably getting the attention because there's more info going around.

Sad week in gaming history though - two great devs apparently killed off by one poor/mediocre game each.

wow AVP? I guess it's in good hands then

TwEE,

Not really. Both Free Radical and Factor 5 are/were relatively small third party companies without major financial backing from any one of the big three console makers outside of exclusivity agreement; no one owned a significant stake in either company. Furthermore, neither company had a revenue stream during the development of their current gen titles; Free Radical's last game was released in 2005 and Factor 5's was released in 2003.

Most games quit moving units 6 months after launch unless they're the system "draw"; most people have a Mario game for their Nintendo console, Microsoft's got Halo, and Sony has MGS. Development was long and costly, but without something to fall back on neither company could really afford to release a flop. It really was an all or nothing proposition. I think their failure has less to do with the "Nintendo Curse" and much more with putting all of their eggs in just one basket without a backup plan.

Besides, I dunno about Factor 5, but Free Radical's fate was more or less sealed when much of its top talent departed to form a new studio (including one founding member). Closure wasn't a matter of if but when. I dunno much about Factor 5's circumstances though, as that was a bit of a surprise.

It did but don't tell the fans here that.