Confirmed: Free Radical lays off 140, 'For Sale' sign posted

by Ross Miller { Dec 26th 2008 at 11:58AM }

It's now official: As of December 31, Free Radical will be 140 employees smaller, which is just over 75% of its workforce. The company and its remaining 40 or so members are now on sale with several companies showing "strong interest," according to the firm brought in to help with downsizing (who in our minds look a lot like the Bobs from Office Space). With the industry death toll rising, our hearts go out to all the developers (and everyone else, for that matter) who faced the tragic, proverbial / literal pink slip this year.

Tags: breakingnews, free-radical, haze, layoff, layoffs

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

mr mobius @ Dec 26th 2008 12:16PM

Merry Christmas all.

It's unfortunate for all the employees fired. Hope some big companies are willing to take on a few new employees.

Haggard @ Dec 26th 2008 2:11PM

In this climate, I'm not so sure.

DigDug @ Dec 26th 2008 4:35PM

"our hearts go out to all the developers"

What a load of tripe. Joystiq and Kotaku were the rabid dogs that destroyed these companies. Haze and Lair did not deserve the grillings you gave them.

You lot should be ashamed.

Popfrogs @ Dec 26th 2008 7:03PM

@Digdug: Lair was developed by Factor 5 and Haze sucked donkey balls. Metacritic's rating for Haze is 55 with an average user review of 6.8 out of 10.

They failed miserably with Haze, when they could have stuck with a tried-and-true formula like Timesplitters.

Shmil @ Dec 27th 2008 12:47AM

@popfrogs
guess you missed the rumor of factor 5 shutting down

Extinction @ Dec 27th 2008 5:55PM

I agree with DigDug. Kotaku is partly to blame for this. Haze was better than the critics gave it credit for, and thus ruined it's sales.

bigsofty @ Jan 1st 2009 5:53PM

Were doomed to corporate mediocre...

Caleb Perkins @ Jan 25th 2009 5:35PM

I love Freeradical. I dont know anything about Haze, or Lair, but Timesplitters was one of the greatest, if not the best series to ever exist in my book. I pray to God in all seriousness, please let Freeradical come back. Let EA buy them out. With the great games they have been making lately like Dead Space, and Battle Field, and Crysis, there sure to make a good partner ship. I wouldnt mind it if Ubisoft picked them up. LONG LIVE FREERADICAL!

Tez @ Dec 26th 2008 12:17PM

Too bad they didn't just get right to work on Timesplitters 4 this gen :( They would probably be fine that way.

Markez (Anti-Panda Death Murder Squadron) @ Dec 26th 2008 12:58PM

I really love those games, and it's the only one in the FPS genre I keep going back to. Very deep, lots to do, a lot of character and uniqueness to it. It'll be a shame in the TimeSplitters series doesn't came back.

Tez @ Dec 26th 2008 1:20PM

If it does, it won't be the same with the team split up. As far as I'm concerned, Timesplitters is dead.

And that sucks.

Samo @ Dec 26th 2008 7:41PM

@Markez: Timesplitters, deep? Yeah, about as deep as a puddle!

don't get me wrong, I love TS, and thoiught it was one of the best console FPSes, if not the best, of it's gen, but that single player was akin to an Jason Stretham film; lots of fun, action but lacking in story.

Tez @ Dec 26th 2008 8:01PM

I don't think he's talking about the story. There were loads of unique challenges and goals, tons of characters to unlock, and a wide variety of options for setting up matches. I'm almost certain he wasn't talking about the story, because I just can't imagine someone trying to say the Timesplitters storyline is deep :)

But gameplay/options-wise, I would say it was deep. Where else could you set up and tweak a match where everybody is a monkey using only flamethrowers and one-hit-kill bricks?

God, I need to play Timesplitters 2 again. That setup was just too much fun.

Markez (Anti-Panda Death Murder Squadron) @ Dec 26th 2008 9:09PM

Lol, yeah thanks, Tez.

Most definitely not referring to the story. Just echoing what you said, the tweaks you can do, the challenges, bells and whistles, etc. Very, very gameplay and options deep.

Now I want to go play it again, too :( I sure miss those deer carcasses...

B3astofthe3ast @ Dec 26th 2008 12:19PM

I almost want to buy Haze just to give them a tad bit of support. Almost.

Mr. E @ Dec 26th 2008 12:47PM

I wonder how much they would want to public domain the source code for Timesplitters code and IP. Hell even open source the Haze IP/Code. I would give 5 bucks for that.

holyice7 @ Dec 26th 2008 1:01PM

This makes me wonder how much of the Rareware staff that took refuge at Free Radical is still there.

skarloss @ Dec 26th 2008 1:13PM

boo-hoo! ANOTHER maker of "me-too" fps bites the dust... WHY SO SURPRISED?
-I can not wait for idiots to start blaming nintendo and the Wii for yet another "hardcore" publisher dying. Funny thing is, IF most of the dead pubs would have tried to make a PRETTY GOOD AND COMPELLING game, instead of JUST A PRETTY (to look at) game, they would probably still be in business.
the less of these shitty publisher the better.
I wonder how many people are actually going to buy and actually enjoy the next halo?
the less of these crappy publishers the better, sad thing is companies like EA and atari are somehow still in business....

Tez @ Dec 26th 2008 1:21PM

It's just videogames, man. Calm down.

MegaWatts @ Dec 26th 2008 1:25PM

Nintendo's fault.

MowDownJoe @ Dec 26th 2008 1:53PM

How is it Nintendo's fault? Haze was PS3 exclusive.

sicsided @ Dec 26th 2008 1:57PM

actually, most of the people working there are the reason why their are FPS games on consoles. Since most of them created GoldenEye on the N64. Their Timesplitter series top notch on the PS2 and then further consoles once it expanded. It was slick, tons of content, and a ton of fun. The only downside was story, but it never seemed like it was all about that. Sorry to tell you also, publisher and developer are different things. Free Radical was a developer, and with Dev costs on current gen systems being around 55$ million, its really sad to see these guys go after having great games and only one dud. Me-Too FPS they were not.

And now, I shall go play CO-OP with a friend on the zombie mansion level in the first Timesplitters.

Marius @ Dec 26th 2008 3:48PM

I agree it was Nintendo's fault

Mindkiller @ Dec 26th 2008 4:59PM

Wait... you never heard of Timesplitters?
Like the guy above said, 'Splitters was a top notch series.
It was good... and compelling.. and played like nothing else out there.

I guess you just hate developers with a passion? Making a deep compelling game ain't easy.

Ken Seang @ Dec 26th 2008 1:32PM

Sad...

Mr Khan @ Dec 26th 2008 2:01PM

It depends on who's left as to whether or not TimeSplitters could continue, but hasn't the founder of the company already moved on to another company? Pumpkin something?

Joe @ Dec 26th 2008 2:22PM

I hope Sony picks them up because Free Radical has made some great games and they really care about co-op and split-screen multi-player.

So then Sony would have both Guerrilla and Free Radical to make awesome shooters.

If it can't be Sony I hope Microsoft this way FR and Rare can work together to make a new Perfect Dark. Plus may be a remake of Golden Eye. So to me either of these two would be great. But at the end of the day I just hope some ones gets them over them being closed down.

Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Dec 26th 2008 3:31PM

See I told you the glass helmet was a stupid idea.

(poor guys)

Tez @ Dec 26th 2008 8:04PM

I detected trouble when I heard the makers of the silliest FPS on earth were trying to do something serious and story-based.

They will be missed.

Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Dec 26th 2008 9:30PM

I didn't turn so bad for Rockstar when they decide to put on their serious face.GTA IV is my favorite game in the series.

The thing is that they tried to do something between the grounds of Halo and Crysis with a story line that makes little to no sense. The cherry on the cake was making it an exclusive.