Free Radical officially announces studio closure

Back in November, it was reported that the Embracer Group-owned studio Free Radical would likely be shutting down, with a consultation said to be taking place ahead of the supposed closure. Unfortunately, it seems as though the TimeSplitters studio will indeed be closed, with the Free Radical now confirming this fact.

Taking to Twitter to publicly confirm the unfortunate news, the now-ex senior artist at Free Radical – Mark Normington – said “It's been a great 2 and a quarter years at Free Radical Design, sad to see us go. Onwards and upwards!”

For the uninitiated, Free Radical was founded all the way back in 1999 and is known best for having developed the classic FPS game TimeSplitters. Unfortunately, the studio did not have the smoothest time in the industry, being shut down back in 2008 before being swept up by Crytek and rebranded as Crytek UK. Once again, Free Radical was closed around 2014 with many of the devs being moved to Dambuster Studios under Deep Silver.

Finally, Free Radical was seemingly saved in 2021 with the studio being reformed in order to bring back the TimeSplitters IP. Unfortunately it seems as though this will no longer happen – marking yet another studio to be closed by Embracer before they have even gotten the chance to release a game.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of all these closures? Should it be allowed? Were you looking forward to a new TimeSplitters? Let us know down below.

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