Publishers Still Interested In Free Radical's TimeSplitters 4?
See Full ImageWe brought you the sad news last week that Free Radical had entered "administration" and were clearly in dire financial straits. Bankruptcy may be imminent, but that doesn't necessarily mean their projects will die out entirely.
As some of you may know, Free Radical was currently working on TimeSplitters 4, which would've been a hotly anticipated title. All previous installments in the series have been excellent; they were received extremely well by most critics and fans loved them. In fact, we distinctly recall a lot of TS loyalists claiming the online play in TimeSplitters 2 was better than it was in Halo. It was also one of the first FPS franchises to allow for such freedom of player-oriented level design. Therefore, it would be a shame to take TS4 behind the shed as if it were Old Yeller, and it appears that certain publishers want to save it. According to a variety of rumored information, despite the Haze debacle, there should be a few takers out there if Free Radical could manage to complete TimeSplitters 4. Either that, or the downed developer could sell the rights to making the game to another studio, and they could finish the work. The bottom line is this- if there's interest, a game isn't necessarily dead and buried.
The same goes for Star Wars: Battlefront 3, by the way. There's no knowing exactly how this whole fiasco will turn out for Free Radical, but if you've been anxiously awaiting either of these titles, stay tuned for more updates. They may survive somehow or another...
Related Game(s): TimeSplitters 4
12/22/2008 Ben Dutka
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Comments (12 posts)
The_Benny
Monday, December 22, 2008 @ 11:50:08 AM
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Regardless, it's disappointing to see them fail like this. It would also be quite sad if the publishers who didn't want to publish TS end up picking the franchise out of Free Radical's corpse and giving it to somebody else.
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OhYessss
Monday, December 22, 2008 @ 11:55:35 AM
God forbid!
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The_Benny
Monday, December 22, 2008 @ 12:56:33 PM
Of course, they (or their IPs) could become exclusives if certain companies decide to buy them, but coming off of Haze they don't have a great reputation, which is partly why they're now in this situation.
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ArnoldK PSXE [Administrator]
Monday, December 22, 2008 @ 2:03:01 PM
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I'd imagine other publishers were smart enough to see that yes, even though Free Radical developed a sh*tty game, it wasn't entirely their fault.
Last edited by ArnoldK PSXE on 12/22/2008 2:03:17 PM
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The_Benny
Monday, December 22, 2008 @ 2:53:35 PM
""They had already started working on TimeSplitters 4, and had been for over a year, but due to the failure of Haze and the deal falling through with Lucas, they couldn't get a publisher to back them. They had a last ditch attempt last week down South somewhere, but it came to nothing so I think that was the last hope.""
So publishers did seem to blame FRD and couldn't count on them making a successful game, regardless of whether Haze was actually their fault. Which, again, is disappointing.
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seismictech
Monday, December 22, 2008 @ 4:19:17 PM
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supremekai
Monday, December 22, 2008 @ 4:41:06 PM
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Wage SLAVES
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 @ 12:42:24 AM
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Godslim
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Monday, December 22, 2008 @ 11:38:14 AM