Free Radical Design

Last updated

Free Radical Design Ltd.
Formerly
  • Crytek UK Limited
    (2009–2014)
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Video games
FoundedApril 1999;24 years ago (1999-04) (original) [1]
May 2021;2 years ago (2021-05) (revival)
Founders
Defunct3 February 2009;15 years ago (2009-02-03) (original)
11 December 2023;3 months ago (2023-12-11) (revival)
Headquarters,
England
Key people
  • David Doak
  • Steve Ellis
  • Karl Hilton
  • Graeme Norgate
Products TimeSplitters
Number of employees
50+ (2022)
Parent
Website www.freeradicaldesign.co.uk

Free Radical Design Ltd. was a British video game developer based in Nottingham. Founded by David Doak, Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton and Graeme Norgate in Stoke-on-Trent in April 1999, they are best known for their TimeSplitters series of games. [2] After going into financial administration, it was announced on 3 February 2009 that the studio had been acquired by German video game developer Crytek and would be renamed Crytek UK. [3] Crytek had a good relationship with the city of Nottingham due in part to its sponsorship of the Gamecity festival and its recruitment drives with Nottingham Trent University. [4] In 2014, the studio closed and a majority of the staff transferred to the newly formed Dambuster Studios. [5] [6] In May 2021, the original founders reformed the studio, led by Doak and Ellis, to create a new entry in the TimeSplitters series. The reformed studio incarnation operated under Deep Silver. The second iteration was shutdown on 11 December 2023.

Contents

History

Most of Free Radical Design's initial employees previously worked for the game developer Rare. While at Rare, they (David Doak, Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton, Graeme Norgate, Lee Ray and James Cunliffe) worked on the Nintendo 64 first-person shooters GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark . From late 1998 to early 1999, this team left Rare to form Free Radical Design, which was established in April 1999, their first release being TimeSplitters for the PlayStation 2 in 2000. It was known for its very fast-paced gameplay and its particular emphasis on multiplayer rather than story. [2] TimeSplitters attracted attention at the time because of the former Rare employees' work on the critically acclaimed GoldenEye 007. Its sequel, first-person shooter TimeSplitters 2 , released with critical acclaim in 2002.

Free Radical Design was working on Star Wars: Battlefront III from 2006 to 2008, but it was cancelled by their publishing partner when it was supposedly "99 percent" complete. [7] The cancellation of this title, and the poorly received release of Haze , contributed to Free Radical Design going into bankruptcy. [1] In late 2008, Free Radical Design was approached by Activision to work on a GoldenEye 007 remake. Although the studio rebuilt the Dam Level for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, negotiations fell through, with the studio entering administration soon afterwards. [1] The remake would release on those consoles without FRD's involvement in 2011 as an enhanced port of its original release on the Wii and Nintendo DS a year prior.

On 18 December 2008, it was reported that the studio had shut down, [8] though it was later confirmed that the company had gone bankrupt, [9] leaving only 40 of the original 185 staff still employed. [10] On 3 February 2009, Haze scriptwriter Rob Yescombe announced that Free Radical Design had been purchased by German game developer Crytek. [11] In 2010, the company moved from Sandiacre to brand-new offices in the new central Nottingham Southreef development. The £50 million investment will allow Crytek UK to "grow over the next few months". [4]

Financial difficulties and closure

In June 2014, reports surfaced that Crytek had missed wage payments and withheld bonuses for the company's employees, and that as a result, a number of employees had filed grievances and refused to report to work, and at least 30 employees had left the company since 2011 alone due to a decreasing morale at the studio. After denying that there were issues, Crytek later admitted on 25 July 2014 that the company was in a "transitional phase" as it secured capital for future projects, with a particular emphasis on online gaming. [12] [13]

On 30 July 2014, Crytek announced that, due to an internal restructuring, it would sell the intellectual property of Homefront (the sequel for which, later restructured as the reboot Homefront: The Revolution , was in development at Crytek UK at the time) to Koch Media, parent company of video game publisher Deep Silver, and lay off much of the company's staff. Crytek left it unclear whether the company had been shut down entirely, however all staff were transferred to the new Dambuster Studios being established in Nottingham in accordance with British law, [14] where they afterwards continued to work on Homefront: The Revolution. [5] [15] [16]

Free Radical Design in May 2023 FreeRadicalDesign.jpg
Free Radical Design in May 2023

Reformation and second closure

In May 2021, Embracer Group announced during their 2020–2021 full-year report that Free Radical Design would be reformed as a subsidiary of Deep Silver with the intent of bringing "the much-loved TimeSplitters IP back to life". [17] Key original members of the original Free Radical Design are involved in the reformation including founders Steve Ellis and David Doak. Their studio is based in Nottingham. [18]

In November 2023, VGC reported that the company was set to be closed down on 11 December by the Embracer Group, which had been restructuring its company and subsidiaries for the last six months, unless a third-party buyer was found. [19] Developers confirmed the closure on 11 December. [20]

Games developed

As Free Radical Design (1999–2008)

YearGamePublisher(s)Genre(s)Platform(s)
GCN Win PS2 PS3 Xbox
2000 TimeSplitters Eidos Interactive First-person shooter NoNoYesNoNo
2002 TimeSplitters 2 YesNoYesNoYes
2004 Second Sight Codemasters Action-adventure, stealth YesYesYesNoYes
2005 TimeSplitters: Future Perfect Electronic Arts First-person shooter YesNoYesNoYes
2008 Haze Ubisoft NoNoNoYesNo

As Crytek UK (2009–2014)

YearGamePublisher(s)Genre(s)Platform(s)
Win PS3 X360
2011 Crysis 2 Electronic Arts First-person shooter YesYesYes
Crysis (port)NoYesYes
2013 Crysis 3 YesYesYes
2014 Warface Microsoft Studios NoNoYes

Cancelled games

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rare (company)</span> British video game developer

Rare Limited is a British video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Twycross, Leicestershire. Rare's games span the platform, first-person shooter, action-adventure, fighting, and racing genres. Its most popular games include the Battletoads, Donkey Kong, and Banjo-Kazooie series, as well as games like GoldenEye 007 (1997), Perfect Dark (2000), Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001), Viva Piñata (2006), and Sea of Thieves (2018).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">THQ</span> American video game company

THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initially working in the toy business, it expanded into the video game business through several acquisitions before shifting its focus away from toys entirely. THQ continued its trend of acquiring companies throughout the 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crytek</span> German video game and software company

Crytek GmbH is a German video game developer and software developer based in Frankfurt. Founded by the Yerli brothers in Coburg in 1999 and moved to Frankfurt in 2006, Crytek operates additional studios in Kyiv, Ukraine and Istanbul, Turkey. Its former studios included Crytek Black Sea in Sofia, Bulgaria, Crytek UK in Nottingham, and Crytek USA in Austin, Texas. Crytek is best known for developing the first instalment of the Far Cry series, the Crysis series, and the open world nature of their games which showcase the company's CryEngine.

<i>TimeSplitters 2</i> 2002 video game

TimeSplitters 2 is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Free Radical Design, published by Eidos Interactive, and released in 2002 for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. The game's story focuses on the efforts of a space marine who seeks to recover powerful time crystals from a race of alien mutants called TimeSplitters, which leads them to taking on the form of an individual dealing with their own problems across different time periods between the 19th and 25th century. The developers focused on expanding the story element following 2000's TimeSplitters, and features influences from various film genres, including Horror, Action and Science Fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graeme Norgate</span> British video game music composer

Graeme Norgate is a British video game music composer who has composed music for a variety of video games developed by Rare. His first project at Rare was writing music for the Game Boy game, Donkey Kong Land. He also contributed to the soundtracks of Blast Corps and GoldenEye 007. Norgate was later an employee of Free Radical Design, the company was eventually bought out by Crytek and renamed to Crytek UK; Norgate retained the position of audio director after the company's buyout. Norgate later moved to Deep Silver Dambuster Studios after Crytek closed down Crytek UK.

<i>TimeSplitters: Future Perfect</i> 2005 video game

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is a 2005 first-person shooter video game developed by Free Radical Design and published by Electronic Arts for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox video game consoles.

<i>TimeSplitters</i> Video game series

TimeSplitters is a series of first-person shooter video games developed by Free Radical Design. The games are often considered spiritual successors to the Nintendo 64 titles GoldenEye 007 (1997) and Perfect Dark (2000), due to overlapping elements in gameplay, design, and development team. Each game features a time travelling element in which players battle across a diverse number of locations and periods in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deep Silver</span> Austrian video game publisher

Deep Silver is an Austrian video game publisher and a division of Plaion.

David Doak is a Northern Irish video game designer. Originally from Belfast, he later moved to England, where he studied at Oxford University on biochemistry specialty and worked as a research scientist.

Kaos Studios was an American video game developer based in New York City, New York. Founded in 2006, the company was most known for developing Frontlines: Fuel of War (2008) and Homefront (2011). It was a subsidiary of publisher THQ until it was shut down in June 2011.

Star Wars: Battlefront is a series of first- and third-person shooter video games based on the Star Wars franchise. Players take the role of characters from the franchise in either of two opposing factions in different time periods of the Star Wars universe. The series was launched in 2004 by LucasArts with Star Wars: Battlefront, developed by Pandemic Studios for LucasArts. The game received positive reviews and sold well. In 2005 Pandemic developed a sequel, Star Wars: Battlefront II, which was also critically and commercially successful.

<i>Crysis 3</i> 2013 video game

Crysis 3 is a 2013 first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek and published by Electronic Arts. It is the third game of the Crysis series, a sequel to the 2011 video game Crysis 2. The multiplayer portion of the game was developed by Crytek UK. Crysis 3's story revolves around Prophet, a Nanosuit holder who is on a quest to take revenge on the Alpha Ceph, the leader of the Ceph alien race. The game's story serves as the end of the Crysis trilogy. Gameplay revolves around the use of the Nanosuit, which grants players a variety of abilities such as being invisible. New features introduced in Crysis 3 include a new Nanosuit ability called "Rip & Throw", a compound bow and hacking, which allows players to hack into enemies' equipment, drones, and security defenses.

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Plaion is a German-Austrian media company headquartered in Höfen, Tyrol, Austria, with an operating subsidiary based in Planegg, Germany. The company was founded in 1994 by Franz Koch and Klemens Kundratitz. The company operates video game publishing labels Deep Silver, Prime Matter and Ravenscourt, the video game developers Warhorse Studios and Milestone, as well as a film distribution arm, Plaion Pictures. Koch Media's parent company, Koch Media Holding, was acquired by Swedish holding company Embracer Group in February 2018.

<i>Homefront</i> (video game) 2011 video game

Homefront is a first-person shooter video game developed by Kaos Studios and published by THQ. The game tells the story of a resistance movement fighting in the near-future against the military occupation of the Western United States by a reunified Korea. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011. After THQ's bankruptcy, the rights of the game were sold to Crytek who then sold the rights to Koch Media after restructuring their company. Deep Silver, a subsidiary of Koch Media, have published the reboot Homefront: The Revolution. Homefront was met with mixed reviews across all platforms. Some critics praised the atmosphere and story, while others panned those same aspects, along with the short length of the single-player campaign. However, the multiplayer aspect was generally well received.

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<i>Homefront: The Revolution</i> 2016 video game

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dambuster Studios</span> British video game developer

Deep Silver Dambuster Studios Ltd. is a British video game developer based in Nottingham, England. The studio was set up by Deep Silver on 30 July 2014 to take over the development of Homefront: The Revolution from Crytek UK, which was closed later that same day, transferring all of its employees to Dambuster Studios.

References

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