Free Radical Closes its Doors

Wha!? That really sucks

shame! They did great games...
Was haze really that bad?

What the hell? Totally unexpected... why did that just come out of nowhere? What could have possibly caused the offices to be locked?

well Haze did suck ^^;

They made the only advertisement I clicked this year. Poor dr. Doak.

WHAT!! They need to make timesplitters 4! noooo. Sniffle.
I hate the crunch (y nut)

Didn't Haze go through several expensive transitions? Or am I thinking of a different game.

Anyway damn!

Damn, last thing I heard from them was that Timesplitters 4 might be coming to the Wii because of the survey they did, a few weeks later, they close down.

All I can say is

Ehm, they state that it's 'business as usual', sounds like they might be back.

Very sad news. I love TimeSplitters. Hopefully someone can pick the franchise up if this really is the end for Free Radical Design.

Well Haze was a big budget exclusive that fell flat on its face. It wasn't so much the game was bad it was to this Generation what Killzone was to the last. True Radical don't seem to make many games and with their next big game cancelled there would be no revenue stream for a long time and for a small developer (cult status does not make them big) that is deadly.

It is their own fault, sad as it is.

I mean, an unknown IP on a slow selling machine competing against a shitload of high-def brown and grey.

That's not gonna work.

If I develop a game, I create a wii one - viable, sellable. More money will come in than get out, more easily at least.

And if you have timesplitters being a top seller on gamecube (relative to the other consoles), and most of them buy a wii, and want a sequel, AND migrate to the wii because hey, they're nintendo fanboys AND there's obvious community demand for action games...

...well, you focus your efforts on a ps3 exlusive, obviously.

Sad, but not unexpected.

Wouldn't it be great if Nintendo bought them? Nintendo needs another studio like Monolith and Retro -- people who make solid games.

Would be massively awesome to have the next Time Splitters a Nintendo exclusive.

Yeah Nintendo definitely seem to be lacking in the second party department right now. And Camelot are being lazy, they need rivalry/kick up the bum

quick question: how many copies does a dev have to sell on PS3 to make a profit? Because ive read that you need, usually, 160k on wii to break even. And the wii has a much bigger userbase so its more likely to reach profit. I mean, you can probably sell 300k copies of a game on PS3 and still take a financial hit.

Haze killed them. The PS3 killed TimeSplitters

rammpeth said:
quick question: how many copies does a dev have to sell on PS3 to make a profit? Because ive read that you need, usually, 160k on wii to break even. And the wii has a much bigger userbase so its more likely to reach profit. I mean, you can probably sell 300k copies of a game on PS3 and still take a financial hit.

Last I read you it was said you had to sell a minimum of 500,000 to break even, but that will obviously vary on the size and time of the project.

Here's the link:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=az3neI1eJui8&refer=japan

Here's some of the outcomes of the dark side of HD gaming. Since that Market isn't as big, and expensive to develop for, well this is what happens. Then again, if their game was better, they could've gone away with it.

Maybe if they developed the game for the 360 as well, they would've sold more?

Oh well, hopefully someone will pick up the timesplitters franchise.

OMG OMFG. I going to cry. I\'ve tears in my eyes I actually NEED Star Wars Battlefront III. Me and my brother are massive fans and play everyday.

I can\'t believe this is fucking happening.

and all right before x-mas..........

(worst x-mas ever....)

Nintendo need to buy them now! There swimming in money (My money :-x ).

( Edited 19.12.2008 00:09 by Birdo Is A Tranny )

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Pooey!

Damn, that's a shame.

Still the talent that used to be in Free Radical will probably be adopted into other dev teams anyway.

I liked that Second Sight game, never really got into Timesplitters because you couldn't jump. WTF kind of fps doesn't let you jump?

But an incredibly nasty time for a company to go down and jobs be thrown into question. My thoughts go out to the employees.

Jacob4000 said:
Wouldn't it be great if Nintendo bought them? Nintendo needs another studio like Monolith and Retro -- people who make solid games.

Would be massively awesome to have the next Time Splitters a Nintendo exclusive.

That would be awesome! I'm hoping someone steps in and helps em out!

To be honest i could see Microsoft aquiring them if they were to be aquired, Microsoft like adding to their games studio, but with the plethora of FPS' on the 360 do they need Free Radical.

Instead though i think they will sell off their assests such as Timesplitters and just try something else, i know Timesplitters is pretty much all they have ever done but still.

Personally i'd see EA just buying the Haze engine and the timesplitters franchise.