Tag Archives: free radical

Some concept art for TimeSplitters 4 has been released into the wild.

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According to this LinkedIn profile, Free Radical was working on an MMO before it went bust and was bought by Crytek in early 2009.

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Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli has said there are many different plans for the online functionality of Crysis 2, and due to the firm’s recent acquisition of Free Radial, it now has a team that can focus only on the multiplayer bits of the game.

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Karl Hilton, head of Crytek UK – that’s Free Radical, or what was Free Rad, to you and me – has said in an interview that they are working on some “exciting” new concepts right now at the studio.

“Going forward, we’ve always made it very clear that we want to build original games and we’re going to do that, and we are concepting some of that up at the moment,” said Hilton.

“It’s early days, but there’s some really exciting stuff that we’re concepting. When we’re ready we’ll talk to publishers, and hopefully publishers will like it, and we’ll own and produce those games in our own studio.”

Although they aren’t quite ruling out the possibility of Timesplitters 4. But he does insist that if TS4 were to happen, it would be down to the demands of the market.

“Like with all businesses, content is dictated by the desires of the market. These days the mass-market shooters tend to be aimed at the hyper-realistic stuff. If developers had free reign with the CryEngine, they would easily be able to produce really bizarre, wacky wonderful stuff.”

More at MCV.

Free Radical’s Karl Hilton has told Develop that Haze “had a lot of development issues which meant it wasn’t the game it should have been,” and admitted that the teams problems getting the game to run on PS3.

“A lot of them were technical issues,” he told the site. “The PS3 is a powerful machine but a difficult one to get the best out of. We spent more time trying get the game running properly and less time to design the game properly.”

After going into administration and being brought into the Crytek fold, Free Radical became Crytek UK and with access to CryEngine 3 the team’s PS3 woes are behind them thanks to the engine’s toolset.

“I don’t think we’ve seen the best out of the PS3 at all,” said Hilton, “and I definitely think one of the best things about Crytek and the CryEngine is that we’re now in the best position to get the most out of the hardware.”

More through the link.

Damnation is now available for pre-purchase on Steam.

Should you lay down the cash for it, you will get a copy of Free Radical’s stealth-action game Second Sight, for free.

Damnation will be available worldwide on May 22.

Crytek has handed Free Radical projects that it has “always dreamed to do”.

Cevat Yerli, founder and CEO of Crytek, says that the purchase of Free Radical was a good business move on its part, saved over 40 jobs, and gave the company a new development team.

“We have provided the team at Crytek UK a structure and a future that clearly shows improvement,” he told Develop. “We are working with Free Radical on things that they always dreamed to do.

“We are providing the team a roadmap and the chance to grow, which is why we were picked as a partner, and not anyone else.”

Projects currently in development were not revealed, but it has been rumored that TimeSplitters 4 and Battlefront 3 were in the works when Free Radical fell into administration.

Read the full interview through the link.

Crytek now owns all of the rights to Free Radical projects including TimeSplitters, says 1UP.

Free Radical was at work on the shooter franchise when they were bought out, but this doesn’t mean another TimeSplitters game is a given, says managing director Anvi Yerli.

“At this early stage we’re looking into all possibilities, but it’s just too early to say,” he said.

Nor is the company’s internal focus “linked to bringing Crysis to consoles”.

With the merge, the firm has been renamed Crytek UK and plans to rehire some of the 185 staff laid off in December.

Nicely done there.

Free Radical is to be renamed Crytek UK, it’s now been confirmed.

Crytek issued a statement today finally admitting it’s bought the developer.

“Free Radical Design is a great fit to Crytek and its culture, given that Free Radical has a proven track record on delivering high quality games,” said Crytek boss Avni Yerli.

“The combination of this team, the Crytek network and our CryENGINE technology will be a foundation for outstanding gaming experiences and a magnet for the best talent in the UK.”

Free Radical as was will form Crytek’s fifth devlopment facility.

Former Haze creative lead Derek Littlewood has told VG247 this morning that a now-confirmed sale of Free Radical to Crytek has brought “relief” to the UK firm.

“It’s clearly a really, really good thing,” he said.

“More than anything else I think everyone is relieved that we can now get back to concentrating on making games.”

A Crytek sale was rumoured last night and confirmed by Free Radical administrator ReSolve Partners this morning.

Free Radical entered administration at the end of last year, shedding 100 jobs over Christmas.

A formal announcement of the sale is expected later today.

Administrator ReSolve Partners has confirmed last night’s rumoured sale of Free Radical to Crytek.

“We are pleased to announce that a sale completed to Crytek late last night thus preserving over 40 jobs,” said a spokesperson.

A formal announcement is expected later today.

Thanks, GI.

Haze writer Rob Yescombe has apparently confirmed to 1UP that Free Radical is to be bought by Crytek.

Free Rad hit trouble just before Christmas last year, laying off 100 employees over the break.

The fate of the company is to be announced this week. Sounds as though it already has.

Thanks, Johnny Cullen.

Administration firm ReSolve Partners will confirm what’s the happen to Free Radical this week, making an announcement on the developer’s future on Wednesday, February 4.

Free Radical hit the skids just before Christmas, laying off 100 staff over the break.

A number of companies have been rumoured to be interested in Free Radical Design, including Codemasters and Monumental Games.

More on GI.

IGN’s yanked footage of Star Wars Battlefront III due to LucasArts pressure.

The publisher told the site the movie of Free Radical’s project – confirmed as real by insiders – was “the intellectual property of Lucasfilm” and had “been posted without permission.”

It looks as though the Kotaku footage we posted last week has also been pulled.

The off-screen video was taken from an alpha meeting at Free Radical last year.

Free Rad was apparently relieved of the project in 2008, months before entering administration. Pandemic is thought to be working on the game at the moment.

Happy New Year. We’re glad we shut down over Christmas. You didn’t miss a whole lot.

By far the most important story over the break was news that Free Radical cut its workforce by 140 to just 40.

The developer was confirmed as being in administration just before the Christmas holiday.

Speaking to 1UP, Cameron Gunn of administrators ReSolve Partners said, “We made around 140 employees redundant yesterday, effective 31 December (the date up to which they had been paid). We’re still trading on with the remaining 40 or so employees, have advertised the business for sale and have received some strong interest.”

News broke mid-December that staff had turned up for work only to be locked with a notice on the door telling them to adjourn to a nearby hotel.

Free Radical aside, other noteworthy Christmas news included confirmation that Mistwalker JRPG Cry On has been cancelled.

“AQI decided to cancel the project after analyzing the current market environment and forecasts for the future. We deeply apologize for troubling those who were awaiting its release,” said a company rep.

Cry On was apparently part of “Hironobu Sakaguchi’s triumvirate of Xbox 360 titles,” says this 1UP piece (the other two being Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey), and for those of you who don’t know, the game “was to be an action-RPG featuring a Nobuo Uematsu soundtrack [and] character designs by Kimihiko Fujisaka.”

Full round up below.

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Free Radical may be in its death throes, but at least we get to look at what might have been. One of the artists on TimeSplitters 4 has released a bunch of concept stuff from the game.

It’s all on Nick Carver’s site, as he’s now looking for a job and it’s apparently free season on TimeSplitters 4 concept art.

Help yourself. Thanks, Kotaku.

TIGA’s put out a press release expressing “condolences to everyone at Free Radical Design” after it was reported yesterday that the firm had gone into administration.

Richard Wilson, CEO of the body, said tjhe government must “take action” in light of the story by giving the games trade tax breaks.

His statement in full:

“On behalf of all TIGA members, I would like to say how sorry the whole industry is to hear of the fate of Free Radical Design. The studio has employed some very talented teams developing first class games over the years. Free Radical Design has also been a member of TIGA and a strong supporter of our trade association. I would like to congratulate everyone at the studio for their past achievements and I wish everyone good fortune in finding a new job as quickly as possible. Free Radical Design’s demise highlights the difficult economic environment in which UK games developers do business.

“Last night, Lord Mandelson, the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), advocated a form of ‘market-based industrial activism’. This approach, he said, means that ‘Policy should be activist in the sense that it recognises that government can and must complement market dynamics to get the best outcomes for our society and economy.’

“The best outcome for the UK video games industry is an increase in the sector’s rate of growth and the return of the UK as the third largest developer of video games in the world. If we are to achieve these results then the Government must establish a more favourable tax environment and tackle the underlying skills shortages facing the industry. A tax break for games production and a larger supply of skilled workers may not have saved Free Radical Design. Nonetheless, this policy approach would strengthen the UK video games sector. The Secretary of State for BERR must take action.”

Free Radical went into administration on Wednesday. Employees found the company locked up yesterday.

According to Joystiq’s crack team, the official website of Activision’s open-world Crackdown-killer, Prototype, sprung a little leak. Joystiq, then, being from the Internet, quickly smuggled a few new, possibly illicit screenshots and movies back to its den.

However, we have no way of confirming the slip-up, as Activision seems to have caulked it up pretty quickly – replacing the leaked assets with a countdown timer.

Odds are, Activision will attempt to re-gobble these mistakenly regurgitated movies and screenshots – which we’re designating as “the best things you’ll see all day” – before too long, so go check them out!

By Nathan Grayson

Free Rad’s put out some concept images for TimeSplitters 4, following yesterday’s movie teaser.

Gearing up for a reveal, surely? Take a look.

Free Radical’s put up a new teaser for TimeSplitters 4 on its site, featuring Vader-style breathing and a monkey in a spacesuit. Obviously.

Little’s known of the game as yet, but you’d hope to be seeing something soon. Take a look at the snippet in the meantime.