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Crytek Rescues Free Radical

It was disappointing to learn that Free Radical was forced to close its doors late last year, but as it turns out, a new day dawns on the horizon.

According to 1Up, Free Radical's Rob Yescombe has confirmed that the Haze and TimeSplitters developer has been purchased by Crytek for an undisclosed sum. Crytek, if you didn't already know, is responsible for games like Crysis and Far Cry, and they're now Free Radical's saviors, so-to-speak. Back on December 31, ReSolve Partners revealed that although the developer could continue to operate, they would have to do so on a skeleton crew. The company went into administration and everything has been "pending" since then, and there was some hope as we learned that several parties expressed "strong interest" in acquiring Free Radical. Said Yescombe:

"After seven long weeks of uncertainty, I can confirm that Free Radical is now out of the woods. We've been bought by a really, really good company. I'm so excited I'm lost for words. It's the smoothest deal we've ever done. It all went through quickly, efficiently, fantastically..."

Yescombe also added that he hopes the team can "ramp back up to its former size," and in response to the question of whether or not we'll ever see TimeSplitters 4, Yescombe said, "We don't know yet. We'll find out over the coming weeks." Come on, bring it! Haze may not have turned out well, but the TS franchise has always been solid and fun.

2/3/2009 John Shepard

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Comments (30 posts)

MirrorSoul
Tuesday, February 03, 2009 @ 10:10:18 PM
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Thank God we don't have to say goodbye to Free Radical *Tear* Beautiful, brings a warm fuzzy feeling to my pocket......wait thats Cryteks hand pulling the money out when Time Splitters 4 releases!?!?!?

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Fenrir
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 7:11:39 AM

:-) Great!

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SerendipityDeus
Tuesday, February 03, 2009 @ 10:21:20 PM
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Good news indeed, now announce Timesplitters 4 as a ps3 exclusive lol, that'd be the day, as long as we now there's a chance I'm happy

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Jed
Tuesday, February 03, 2009 @ 11:15:07 PM
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Very good to hear, thanks Crytek

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LegendaryWolfeh
Tuesday, February 03, 2009 @ 11:24:51 PM
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Anyone else hear about how Haze's online is gone now? something to do with not enough people playing, but I'm sure it was due to FR going into Admin. But yeah people say it no longer has online servers

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Banky A
Tuesday, February 03, 2009 @ 11:41:35 PM
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Happy days.

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LCF
Tuesday, February 03, 2009 @ 11:43:05 PM
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I see it now: Haze: Reborn. Using the CryEngine2. A clone of Crysis game play on drugs.

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ArnoldK PSXE [Administrator]
Tuesday, February 03, 2009 @ 11:48:55 PM
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This is awesome news. Guys at Crytek definitely have my respects for keeping the studio afloat. Just imagine the caliber of work TWO renown FPS developers will put out together.

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PS3_Wizard
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 10:41:25 AM

Hell...imagine the graphics.

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Phoelix
Tuesday, February 03, 2009 @ 11:49:33 PM
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I'm more excited for Battlefront III, which Free Radical had, apparently, nearly completed. I don't know why EA and Activision didn't jump on that opportunity; the franchise is pretty much pure gold since we all loved Battlefront II and the huge wars.

Since they're with Crytek they'll probably rename it BattleCry III, though.

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Loogs
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 7:44:24 AM

I am probably the biggest Battlefront fan on these boards. Doesn't Rebellion have the rights to III though? I remember reading about FR giving all rights to Rebellion except the programming behind land-to-atmosphere-to-space jumps. In fact, I heard the project was canceled entirely. Kotaku.com made at least 3 or 4 posts exposing "what could have been". How am I being so calm about this? After many days of grieving, I've started the healing process...

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Orvisman
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 10:04:00 AM

Yeah. Me too. They were doing some interesting things with that game. Dark Obi Wan equals cool!

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PS3_Wizard
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 10:42:40 AM

Aww sweet I forgot about Battlefront. A PS3 version would be sweet as hell.

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Aftab
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 1:07:51 AM
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No surprise considering Sweden is the world's most charitable nation per capita.

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Aftab
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 1:09:22 AM
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I hear the women the rank quite high on the universal hotness meter, too.

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Kingharris
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 2:16:38 AM
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YES!YES!YES!Woooooo roll on Timesplitters 4, the monkey will never die! And what's that i have read Crytek prefer PS3, the know how to use it? Ha, top news!

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realmadpuppy
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 2:27:07 AM
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I hope Crytek doesn't disappoint everybody and not make Timesplitters. that would be a really anti-climatic save. :P

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daizycutter
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 3:05:23 AM
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in other words crytek said we will give you bottom dollar for it and we will say no more about it ..wot have free readical got to bargain with!!??

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JoshBall
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 4:10:40 AM
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To the guy who said about battlefront 3,

imagine if crytek finished it, it would amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQE_1whOtqs

check that!

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Aftab
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 4:06:12 PM

Looks awesome! Which publisher could not possibly see the promise in that game. I big pitty if somehow it is dropped.

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Frenchy17
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 4:19:57 AM
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This is outstanding news, I will sleep like a baby tonight!

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Tim
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 6:23:30 AM
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Excellent! TimeSplitters 4 is still my most anticipated game. Bring back customizable split-screen multiplayer goodness and all the fun that has been that franchise! Very exciting. Is it too much to hope TimeSplitters arrives by year's end?

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Fenrir
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 7:10:54 AM
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Yeah, good they saved em. Nowadays itīs the way, that if you flop one game yourīre out. Or you are rich(advertising) enough to hype even a flop to a top, like Crytek is. Looking forward to Timesplitters4

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Randomhero1
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 7:58:21 AM
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Hopefully they Get Battlefront III done, I Really want to play that.
Last edited by Randomhero1 on 2/4/2009 7:58:38 AM

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robinhood2010
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 8:55:35 AM
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YAY!!! Bring back the amazing customizable hilarious FPS, with sweet online multiplayer mayhem! Favourite PS2 game ever!

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PS3_Wizard
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 10:48:23 AM
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I never played TimeSplitters. Whats the gameplay like?

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robinhood2010
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 5:31:43 PM

Ok, it is mostly arena based, with loads of different multiplayer game modes ( I am talking about 10 ) with a stupid amount of characters. How many was it in the last one, 150?

The single player/co-op campaign tends to be levels proper, with set goals to achieve, then there is a challenge mode, which reward you for completing mostly ridiculous challenges, like shooting melons from monkeys' heads with a sniper.

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PS3_Wizard
Thursday, February 05, 2009 @ 9:24:59 AM

Lol, sounds trippy. Maybe ill play it while fading an L.

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Arvis
Wednesday, February 04, 2009 @ 1:00:53 PM
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Timesplitters > Halo, at least as far as Fun Factor goes. I've played many hours of both and I prefer Timesplitters BY FAR. The sheer variety of weapons in TS2 blows every other FPS away. They need to bring that back to the FPS genre. I'm tired of using the same 3 weapons over and over and over again for 99% of the game.

-Arvis

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BIG_E
Thursday, February 05, 2009 @ 11:28:44 PM
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This is good to know now the doors are open for a crysis released on ps3. At free Radical they have the know how for ps3 software development.
Crytek has no excuse now i cant wait for the next Crytek FR project.
Crytek experimenting with BLU RAY sorry i just had a nerdgasum.
Last edited by BIG_E on 2/5/2009 11:31:57 PM

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