Citing sources close to the studio, Video Games Chronicle has reported that Timesplitters developer Free Radical is facing closure by Embracer Group.
The original Free Radical filed for bankruptcy in 2008 after the cancelation of Star Wars: Battlefront III and a failed bid at a Goldeneye 007 remake for Activision. The remains of the studio were bought up by Crytek, rebranded Crytek UK, and the staff went to support some of that developer’s games, such as the Crysis series and Warface. During this time, a lot of the staff reportedly left the studio. Most of the remaining staff was later transferred to Dambuster Studios under Deep Silver, where they worked on Homefront: The Revolution and Dead Island 2.
In 2021, Deep Silver (a subsidiary of Plaion and Embracer Group) reformed Free Radical with some of the key staff returning, including Steve Ellis and David Doak. The intention was for them to revive the Timesplitters series.
According to Video Games Chronicle, Embracer and Plaion “must consult employees for a minimum of 30 days before making any redundancies, including exploring ways of avoiding them.” This means that the studio could remain open, but as VGC initially reported, many key staff are currently looking for work.
If the closure of Free Radical goes through (and it looks like it will), this will be another in a long line of closures and layoffs for Embracer Group. This follows the loss of a potential $2 billion investment that reportedly fell through earlier this year. It’s been really painful to see so many losses due to the failures of an overly optimistic, expansion-hungry corporation.
Beyond Embracer Group, many other companies have been laying off huge portions of their staff, including Epic Games and Ubisoft. It’s not a fun time to be covering this industry, let alone working in it.
