Embracer’s well-documented collapse looks poised to claim another casualty, with VGC reporting the re-established TimeSplitters dev Free Radical could be next on the chopping block. As you may already know, the Swedish firm went on a massive acquisition spree for several years, but a collapsed contract has caused it to restructure its entire organisation, with subsidiaries like Saints Row’s Volition shuttered as a consequence.
And it sounds like the UK-based Free Radical could be next, with sources saying it’s under threat, and multiple employees actively seeking employment on social media in the last 24 hours. This comes just two years after the team was re-established, under the leadership of original founders Steve Ellis and David Doak, with the intention of bringing the legendary TimeSplitters IP back to life.
Obviously, it’s possible the studio may still survive, and parent company Plaion – the Embracer subdivision under which Free Radical sits – is yet to comment on the situation. But considering how bleak the outlook appears to be within Embracer right now, that feels more like wishful thinking than anything else.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 22
Sony should try to pick some of these studios up super cheap. Even if it's just for to be used as support studios
Colin was right.
Sony or MS need to get in there before Embracer end up destroying all their studios. You could tell it was coming from a mile off.
Too many good people/games/studios could be lost because of these morons.
Sad news. I’ll certainly like the opportunity to play Time Splitters 2 again. I sold my copy went Time Splitters 3 came out, and it was a bad trade.
That's what you get with lack of regulation, but then you got all those "we want a free market" morons yelling nay, never realising that the limitless free market won't serve a large percentage of people. If you're not rubbing shoulders with CEO buddies, you want regulation.
So basically Embracer came in and took over a host of gaming studios that were part of many a gamers most fondest memories and now they are just going to (probably) close them down. I think it’s shocking. This really is a warning to developers. It may look like the grass is greener when someone comes in offering substantial cash for their time and effort getting to where they are, only to be dropped like a bad habit as soon as things turn awry.. Hopefully these guys can be saved.
Once again I curse at Embracer Group.👿
@BeerIsAwesome the problem isn’t the saudis, it’s Embracers moron of a CEO Lars Wingfors. This absolute lemming bet his company’s life on a verbal agreement, which is the dumbest thing anyone can do for any business arrangement. Literally business 101, everything in writing. The man needs to be ousted, he’s so unbelievably incompetent that anything he touches is a massive liability. No one wants to partner with him now, and it’s because he made a complete rookie mistake.
There should be a law or regulation in place for what Embracer is doing. I honestly will never support them again going forward after this.
This is a example why Sony doesn't buy up to much studio's it so expensive to have to many of them and keep up quality with all of them. Thats why Sony should keep up some smaller studios that don't make games of 100 million plus.
@Ryall pick up a copy of Homefront for a few quid for ps4 and you can play time splitter 2 in 4k. You just have to find the arcade game within the game 👍
@Flaming_Kaiser So they bought Bungie just to waste money on some morons in hope they make dozen of GaaSes no one wants to play...
Feel sorry for the developers, obviously the leaders of these development studios saw the embracer $$ and signed up, it was always going to collapse as nothing worthwhile has come out of any of these embracer group acquisitions, you need money coming in to support this spending and I don't think they've had one big hit yet and unfortunately the employees on the bottom rungs are the ones affected
Hey Sony. That's a gift right there.
Why don't they try to sell the studios or IP's?? it's certainly better to have sold them than to permanently shut them down
With all the studios and IP they'd acquired they'd yet to release anything essential. Was there any long term vision other than buy more studios? Wouldn't surprise me if the whole thing turns out to be some elaborate money laundering or Ponzi scheme.
@BeerIsAwesome I can’t help but feel this is less a mistake and more of a tragic case of poor leadership. Wingfors started out more as a little guy, when it came to his presence in the industry at least. I liked him back then, but he absolutely got way too big much too fast. He is not a good leader for what has become such a huge company. This deal’s fallout was either a result of cluelessness or the aftermath of a man who burned out and overlooked core conduct integral to running a company.
I’ve longed for someone to make a new Timesplitters game most of my life. Sad news
@djlard I didn't say they made all smart acquisitions. But if you look at most of their studios make quite high quality games.
I can't remember the last game free radical made. Was it homeland 2? I seem to remember it being talked about in a generally positive way but i never played it. Time splitters 2 was decent on the ps2 but the story from what i remember jumped about too much and i couldnt keep track of it. Sony should buy free radical and bring back time splitters and while they are at it bring back motorstorm and the resistance games..oh and socom too..
@BeerIsAwesome Here’s to hoping we never have to read about one this big again. I understand when someone new to business, someone who might be running a startup or something, makes this mistake. But a CEO who has quite robust experience in his position shouldn’t be making this kind of decision.
I’m hoping they can right the ship, not because I like Wingfors but because these devs are casualties of someone who has wealth beyond their comprehension being a fool.
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