The mega-awesome company Free Radical [Timesplitter series, Haze] have shut their doors. While their latest game Haze, was not so highly reviewed, they were working on Timesplitters 4 and Star Wars: Battle Front for LucasArt. Well they were working on the Star Wars game, rumor has it that LucasArt dropped the deal they had with the independent developers.
I was in complete blogger shock when I heard the news. So shocked that I could not write about it for two days. Ok maybe that was not the real reason. But it did give us more time to find out that founder of Free Radical, Steve Ellis, had previously set up another company a few months back named Pumpkin Beach. From the Unoffical Free Radical Blog, the company was set up to create a new IP separate from the Timesplitters series and Haze. Though it seems that Ellis has asked several Free Radical employees to work for the new company. But with the closing of Free Radical will this be the saviour of Timesplitters 4? There has been a plethora of concept art work for the game on the web. Gamers of all sorts will be better off if this game can be finished. Nukoda wishes all the employees well in this slump in the economy and hope they all find work for they all are truly talented game creators.
I was gutted to hear this. Free Radical have been responsible for some of my favourite games (mainly the Timesplitters series, admittedly). I hope the 4th game will be saved. I truly think it would rock on the Wii, if done right.