Free Radical Design is re-established and makes new TimeSplitters game

Deep Silver is reviving the disbanded studio Free Radical Design to work on a new TimeSplitters game. Steve Ellis and David Doak, who originally founded the studio, are also in charge of the new studio.

Publisher Deep Silver says the TimeSplitters franchise is being revived. The first step is to set up a development studio that will make the games. Veterans Steve Ellis and David Doak head that studio, which will again be renamed Free Radical Design.

Ellis and Doak were the founders of a studio of the same name that released the first TimeSplitters game for the PlayStation 2 in the year 2000. It was a first-person shooter that had similarities with Nintendo 64 games such as GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. Doak had previously worked on those games at Rare.

TimeSplitters focuses on time travel. The first game took place in a span of one hundred years, between 1935 and 2035. The new game is not yet in development and details about the game are not yet known. For the time being, it is only an announcement of the studio’s set-up.

Development studio Free Radical Design was originally founded in 1999. In 2009 the studio was taken over by Crytek and the name was changed to Crytek UK. The studio was then working on games in the Crysis series, but closed in 2014 due to an internal restructuring. In 2018 , THQ Nordic bought the rights to TimeSplitters without disclosing its plans. THQ Nordic, like Deep Silver, is part of the Embracer Group.