Citing sources close to the studio, Video Games Chroniclehas reportedthatTimesplittersdeveloper Free Radical is facing closure by Embracer Group.
The original Free Radical filed for bankruptcy in 2008 after the cancelation ofStar Wars: Battlefront IIIand a failed bid at aGoldeneye 007remake 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 theCrysisseries andWarface. During this time, a lot of the staffreportedly left the studio. Most of the remaining staff was later transferred to Dambuster Studios under Deep Silver, where they worked onHomefront: The RevolutionandDead 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 torevive theTimesplittersseries.
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 arecurrently looking for work.
If the closure of Free Radical goes through (and it looks like it will), this will be another in along line of closures and layoffsfor Embracer Group. This follows the loss of a potential $2 billion investment that reportedly fellthrough 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, includingEpic GamesandUbisoft. It’s not a fun time to be covering this industry, let alone working in it.
