Embracer’s TimeSplitters studio Free Radical faces closure

VGC writes: "According to people close to Free Radical Design, the Nottingham, UK-based studio has been part of the evaluation and employees have now been notified that it could close."

[melons]

Absolute shame on Embracer if they bring back a dead studio just to kill it off again before they have enough time to make their first new game.

[Relientk77]

Wow wtf... you get all of the TimeSplitters fans, including me, excited by bringing back Free Radical, and now you kill everyone's hopes and dreams just like that. I'm so disappointed.

[Gardenia]

TimeSplitters were special games. It would have been great now with online multiplayer to play these games PVP or co op.

[Snookies12]

This is terrible, if true... Why can't we live in a timeline where we have Timesplitters again? I'm not entirely sure if this is affecting the one being worked on outside of Free Radical. I just miss this series so much, I want something... Anything...

[Crows90]

I think that insomniac could do a good timesplitters...without all the progressive crap hopefully.

[ZwVw]

All of those comments about Embracer being a better fit for Acti-Blizz, as opposed to MS, have aged gracefully..

[Crows90]

What? Who said that?

[Kornholic]

Both are equally bad outcomes.

[Joe913]

I know this is a bit out there but Sony should buy them. They aquired a lot of studios that made a lot of good games, I personally was hoping for a Legacy of Kain sequel or a reboot but I doubt that happens now.

[DarXyde]

I don't know that they would be willing to make that purchase after Haze.

Even then, I'm very apprehensive about acquisitions. Just seems like a lot to take on for a studio that is not very prolific.

[autobotdan]

The end of video games is near. We are getting close. Soon all video game consoles will be in museums

[JohnMarble]

I don't know, maybe for a lot of AAA companies it is. There are so many great games on Steam that are made by small talented companies that seem to always be getting more and more recognition.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

Embracers bought up countless studios and IPs with no planning of how to adequately use it’s acquired assets. Now the company that gloated about having more studios than Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo combined, is falling apart.

[VincentVanBro]

And this folks is why one company shouldn’t hold the keys to so many beloved IPs.

[shadowknight203]

Embracer used all that money to become a juggernaut powerhouse in terms of how many developers they have, only to not see it come to fruition. Like, was there a tax break someone got for spending all that money, or hidden incentive were all not aware of? It seems so ludicrous of a notion, like, spend millions upon millions of dollars, hundreds of millions, for them to do what they've been doing and that's basically closing the very studios they spent alot of money on acquiring. Free Radical and Timesplitters needs to happen, that franchise needs a reboot.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

There is a theory that Embracer wanted to buy and flip studios and IPs. Embracer bought the Tomb Raider IP only to license it too Amazon. Embracer’s licensed Tomb Raider for significantly more than what they paid for it.

[shadowknight203]

Someone should have told em the IP is only as good as the coder lol. But I get it, that theory makes good sense.

[franwex]

What sense did that make?

[Inverno]

Bruh sell this guy's off then? They bought up all these studios, did NOTHING with them and rather than sell em off they close em down cause they were too stupid with their spending. What an absolute fk up.

[neutralgamer1992]

We never get a HD collection of these with some tweaks and that’s a missed opportunity along with legacy of kain series

[Games1st]

Ouch more like deadly embrace.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Whatever happened to the Timesplitters Remake that I heard about over a decade ago?