Nottingham-based independent studio closes its doors, say reports
Time has run out for UK independent Free Radical Design.
Rumours have been circulating for some time that the Timesplitters and Haze developer might be facing difficulties – and today various reports and our industry sources say the studio has closed.
Videogaming 24/7 first noted this morning that the developer is no longer answering its phone line, while commenters on Eurogamer's forum have said that the locks have been changed at the office.
Industry sources contacted by Develop echoed the rumours, with one telling us that 'something' had happened at the company this morning.
However, none of its former staff have been available for comment.
Advertisement
Develop understands that the studio had come into trouble after its project with LucasArts was cancelled - purportedly some time ago - although the company's website still mentions the collaboration.
Poor critical and commercial success of its previous title Haze, and the lack of any announced publisher for its self-funded fourth installment of the TimeSplitters series, are believed to have affected the company as well.
It's a shame really, FRD were really one of the crown jewels of British developers in recent years, they even felt a bit like developers from the golden age of gaming.
They'll be surely missed.
Haze was actually quite good. However the media needed something to get their teeth into and create a sensationalized news about. The resulting media feeding frenzy guaranteed this game to fail.
It's unfortunate that gamers can't judge games for themselves, and are allowed to be influenced by game review sites with hidden agendas (Joystiq/Kotaku/Eurogamer looking at you here...)
Yep, it's terrible - what a Christmas present :(. We really hope that everybody who's been affected finds a new job as soon as possible.
Haze wasnt good, it was poor to average - as you can see by user reviews, not just the review sites.
I feel sorry for the ground level people working at FRD in development, The execs obviously didnt know how to grow and do a current gen game - ps3 exclusive also is not going to help.. They were pretty lucky surviving they way they worked in the last gen - when the stakes went up they failed. - Good luck to the guys looking for work!!
I didn't play HAZE, mainly because I don't have a PS3 and don't intend to get one any time soon. I don't know how much FRD were paid by SONY to make HAZE a PS3 exclusive, but it clearly wasn't enough.
Hope they do find a publisher for Timesplitters tho, I really enjoyed those games.
this realy is a shame, altho a lack of PS3 kept me from playing more than a couple of hours of haze what i played was not too bad
timesplitters should find a publisher, at least one of them has got to see that it will make them money
hope the staff find jobs quickly either way
Just hope they get new jobs soon....bad news :(
No more Timesplitters then I guess...
This was inevitable - they made poor-to-average games, and many of its key staff were incredibly arrogant and rude. It's little wonder that no one wants to work with them these days.
It's just a shame that ultimately those things meant that nearly 150 other staff have to suffer and look for jobs in the new year.
