Developers made redundant during the recent closure of UK-based developer Free Radical have begun to update their portfolios, offering tantalising glimpses of a TimeSplitters game that will now likely never see the light of day, from concept art and texture packs to character models and weapon designs.
Former assets have begun appearing online (thanks, Eurogamer) and are being compiled on the game's Fandom page. The untitled TimeSplitters game was announced in 2021 when then-publisher Deep Silver revealed it would be reforging Free Radical Design, comprised of key former staff, to helm the project. After being snapped up by Embracer and subsequently caught in the unprecedented round of layoffs at that company, news the studio would close was finally confirmed last week.
Were you looking forward to the return of TimeSplitters? What do you think of the direction Free Radical was taking the reboot? Pour one out for those we've lost in the comments section below.
[source timesplitters.fandom.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 9
[please see above two comments for mine and many others genuine reactions]
It was genuinely gutting, I have so many fond memories of the games and it’s an excellent series to reboot.
Ah, well. It might actually be for the best. Games like Timesplitters FP with massive amounts of free unlockable content and things to do would be unlikely to exist today.
Jo-Beth Casey would probably be DLC and split up into multiple parts (one of which would conveniently be worth slightly more ''Timesplitters Points'' than the rest so that you have to buy the bigger currency pack).
Teddy bear backpack? $3.99. Baseball bat? $3.99. Shotgun? $3.99. Jo-Beth Casey's ''iconic'' $lut T-shirt? $4.99.
I'm just saying, I have fond memories of this franchise too. But let's not forget the world of MODERN GAMING that we currently live in. I'm just glad we got what we did when we did.
C'mon Sony, pick these folks up! 😭
You had a pretty terrible PS2 multiplayer shooter, a sequel that added some decent multiplayer options and an EA threequel that was 2000's EA through and through.
None of the games were anything close to Perfect Dark on the N64. I put it forward that Timesplitters was overrated.
That really sucks we didn't get to see a game with some of this content. Just a bad state games business is in currently.
I'd bet this couldn't get to a live service state so everything and everyone got shut down.
Or also it wasn't good enough to be an AAA great selling $70 single player experience with 'tacked on multiplayer' it also didn't get to the finish line.
The 'tacked on multiplayer ' is the heart of Timesplitters and not sure how that lives today without a lot of changes and concessions.
I hate to say it (and it truly sucks) we don't live in the early - mid 2000s anymore. Now companies/investors need financial promise of money/sales/monthly users/etc. so a need for million(s) seller AAA or it's a live service otherwise the support goes away.
@RadioHedgeFund Perfect Dark had more single player focus and interesting guns/gadgets that's why it's more fondly remembered. Yet right now Microsoft is struggling to get the IP into a second game. They built a new studio and had to get assistance from another studio over time while most of the new built studio employees already left. It's bewildering to say the least.
Both were good but your comparing them when they are apples and oranges 2000s shooter IPs. Very different games and well opinions are opinions on which is better.
@kuu_nousee *fourth game
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