Free Radical Design, the studio behind the TimeSplitters franchise, has been officially shut down by the Embracer Group. The announcement comes courtesy of the Free Radical Design website stating “404 Company Not Found.” Embracer Group has not yet commented on the announcement.
David Doak, Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton and Graeme Norgate found Free Radical Design in 1999. The developers, mostly made up of former Goldeneye 007 developers, worked on the beloved TimeSplitters franchise. They published the first entry in the series in 2000, with the last entry in the series released in 2005. While they were set to make a new TimeSplitters game under the Embracer Group, those plans have undoubtedly been shelved as the company has now been shut down.
Embracer Group Shuts Down Free Radical Design
On the official Free Radical Design website, all visuals for the company have been removed. Instead, all that’s left is a statement that says “404 company not found” with a sad face. Additionally, former employees on Linkedin have been posting farewell messages to the company. Kevin Ellis, former QA manager, stated the following:
“As the sun sets on my last day at Free Radical Design, I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to collaborate both with industry legends and with emerging talents who will no doubt shape the future of the industry.
“Free Radical Design was a hub of creativity, but sadly, we join an ever-growing list of casualties in a broken industry where entire studios are treated as replaceable cogs in a soulless machine fixated on nothing but share prices.”
Several other companies are also under Embracer Group’s banner, including Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics, and Limited Run. The recent shut down of Free Radical Design may not bode well for the future of these companies. Only time will tell what the future of the previously announced new TimeSplitters game or other companies mentioned above will hold.
