Rumour: Free Radical shutting up shop? [Update]

I hope that rumour is not true.

Fingers crossed for the lads.

I was waiting for this to turn up on here.

I really hope it’s not true, and what a sodding awful time for it to happen if it is

There’s been rumblings about bad things at FRD for the past couple of months, but from reports it’s looking like it’s all coming to a head.

Shitty situation. Much condolences to all involved.

Yeah, thought I’d send these boys a quick mail to see if they can find anything else out. I really hope it’s not true.

/prays to his dark gods

Doesn’t look good judging by the latest post.

Not so Hazelol.

If this is true, good luck guys and gals. Absolutely shitty situation and I hope you can all find jobs really quickly.

I know I really didn’t like Haze but

Maybe there not answerin there phone because its there Christmas Holidays?

Well we can hope thats why!

This would be sad news. Is the industry really at a point where one flop will result in the end of the studio? Sure, Haze wasn’t much cop, but people certainly went into overdrive with the mud slinging.

I recently played through Timesplitters: Future Perfect, and really enjoyed it. They really should have gone straight into that franchise as their first next gen project. I can only echo other people’s sentiments, that I hope they pull through, and what a terrible time for it to be happening if true

I am really hoping this is just a false alarm and that they are just away for the Xmas holidays.

If this is true, it’ll be a sad loss for gaming.

This would be total pants if it’s true, I loved Timesplitters 2 back in the day, was looking forward to 4.

It doesn’t seem very likely that the guy with the only set of keys would go off on his Christmas hols without telling the rest of the staff, unfortunately.

I think Haze suffered because it was a PS3 game. By most accounts it wasn’t actually that bad, but people targetted it because they wanted the PS3 to fail rather than the game. Sony had built it up to be something that (perhaps) it could never be, and there’s nothing the internets likes more than rubbing Sony’s face in it whenever they get the chance.

Kotaku and CVG have the story too, but both still at the unconfirmed rumour stage. The CVG piece includes gristly details of a recent FRD night out that sounds less like a Christmas party and more like a slightly premature wake.

It’d be sad if they went under, but I think the talent would stay in the industry.

Whatever feelings I might have for FRD or it’s staff, this isn’t good news for the industry…

Hope they can salvage some sort of last minute deal if it is indeed true.

There’s some truth to that Blerk. PS3 really needed a top tier FPS at the time, and when Haze failed to deliver, people really went into over drive.

It was average at best though, and brought nothing fresh to the table. It was also a complete technical mess, which being a PS3 exclusive, gave the fanboys more ammo to shoot it down with.

In many respects it deserved to fail, especially as Doak was talking it up as the next big thing, but it didn’t deserve to be torn to pieces the way it was.

Wasn’t Free Radical one of the few developers who paid their staff for over time too? That in itself would make their closure a real shame, as it was the right example to set.

The stuff I’m hearing’s not good. Nothing concrete, though. Hopefully I’ll have something worth updating soon.

GI.biz and EG frontpage just posted a story, but again, still not 100%

“Whatever feelings I might have for FRD or it’s staff, this isn’t good news for the industry…”

Companies close up shop daily, and people have been lamenting the “deaths” of these developers for years like it was something new and outrageous every time it happened. This isn’t a new thing.

I can’t think of a single FRD game that I ever particularly liked all that much, though I do feel bad for people who might loose their jobs over this.

Updated. I’d be very surprised if this wasn’t true now.

Poor bastards best of luck finding new jobs.

Has anyone been in touch with nekotcha?

Updated again.

Didn’t Sony pay out for exclusivity on Haze? I guess most of the cash went to Ubi and not back out again

I can’t believe the Star Wars Battlefront title will get canned so hopefully that gives some of those working on it a way out. Sucks for the others though

People are saying they lost the Battlefront game months ago.

Rumour has it that the Battlefront title had already been moved to Rebellion even before this happened. Indeed, it may well turn out to be the cause of these events.

Edit: snap!

Fucking Lucasarts.

Pitchforks and torches!

Weren’t EA doing Timesplitters 4?

They must have pulled out of that too…

They did lose Battlefront. Updated.

TS4 was still unsigned – possibly another contributing factor to their demise.

If they lost the Lucas money and couldn’t find some through TS, that probably explains it.

So, not content with just ruining Star Wars, they are now ruining the other fun stuff in the world? What next? Are they going to burn down theme parks?

Cunts.

It’s a damned shame. Frankly I’m somewhat surprised that they weren’t bought up years ago by one of the biggies (Sony, EA, Ubi, etc.) looking for an in-house FPS shop.

We might bitch and moan about our devs, but we don’t like to lose any of them.

@deftangel

Haze was originally announced for 360 also, although MS seem to have (wisely) pulled out early. If Sony paid extra for it as an exclusive, they were seriously had.

There’s a post on Kotaku from someone with sources in the company. if true, the story is they’re scaling down to team of 37. Drastic, but still not deceased.

Of course, if they haven’t actually got any projects in development that have been picked up by publishers…

Time to start making XBLA/PSN/WiiWare games, I reckon.

It was supposed to be on the PC, too.

Just saw the new updates.

@GordonR – My impression at the time was that Sony certainly were had. It would be daft to go exclusive on the PS3 with an FPS sans a moneyhat now, let alone then so I’d find it difficult to believe otherwise. I seem to remember them gobbing off about it at their E3 conference to boot.

The Kotaku story sounds like it could be feasible though presumably they haven’t “lost” TS4, just scratching around for a publisher?

But at the time the decision was made to go PS3 exclusive, people were still fully expecting the PS3 to kick the 360′s teeth in by Christmas. I’m sure it seemed like a sound business decision at the time.

@ deftangel:

TS4 is no small title.

In a time where everyone admits that it’s franchises that get the most sales, I find it strange that they were struggling to find a publisher.

As for when Haze went PS3 exclusive, then we’re talking about a time when almost everyone was still convinced that the PS3 was going to win this generation with ease.

Analysts and gamers alike.

So the temptation to go PS3 exclusive is probably much less now than it was then.

Anyway, nobody could really have guessed what would happen to Haze. We’re talking about the talent behind GoldenEye that built up a successful franchise on the PS2/GCN whilst maintaining independence and looked to be moving from strength to strength.

To be honest, to this day I’m still totally suprised at what happened to Haze. I was sure that it was going to be one of the PS3′s best games.

@ Blerk:

Oh snap!

Any updates yet since the last one, Pat?

Haze was announced as a PS3 exclusive at e3 2007. I’m not sure the general concensus was that the PS3 was going to “smash the 360 by Christmas” that many months after launch. I’d be staggered if money wasn’t involved.

As for TS4 though, I’m surprised as anyone nobody has wanted to pick that up. Sort of thing I could see Sega publishing, for example.

What *would* Shatner have to say about all this anonymous reporting, eh? Shame on those involved.

I think Sony should carry a little of the blame for Haze. If you pay for an exclusive, then you should see that investment is used wisely by assigning your own exec producer to the project to make sure things are going on track. And if they did do that, well… he/she didn’t do their job.

Oh, I’m sure money was involved. But PS3 success was still pretty much considered a done deal at that point despite a slower-than-expected start, and that probably made the deal even more appealing. I don’t think anyone expected what has actually happened.

@SticKboy: Shatner’s probably getting drunk with the rest of the FRD staff right now. Poor bastard.

@Blerk before the $599 E3 conference I’d have agreed with you but if the writing was on the wall in pencil at that point it was starting to be gone over in biro in the months after launch. Perhaps it’s the ex-Box fanboy in me, I feel less surprised

As for Haze, they did delay it from late 2007 till May this year. I was staggered when it reappeared they hadn’t changed all that much.

“Shame on those involved.”

Indeed. There’s some naughty quoting going on here.