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[Kadve]

Note that the guy apparently wanted to remain anonymous so how much of this is true is unverifiable.

TimeSplitters (2021)/Anonymous Interview

The Free Radical Archive was approached by an anonymous employee who wished to reveal details about the game's development. The employee sent us the following image to verify his identity: The validity of this image can be confirmed by looking at the version in this portfolio. In the portfolio...

freeradical.fandom.com

Summary:

* Steve Ellis pitched the game to Deep Silver before the "new" Free Radical was a thing. Initially as a Multiplayer only Battle Royale/Fortnite clone with microtransactions though the dev speculates that he had intentions to eventually shift the development into something else (this is pretty common within the industry, mind you).

* It was (seemingly, as the dev sates he wanted his studio back) his idea to reform Free Radical. Initially they just operated as a team under Dambuster out of their basement. David Doak had limited involvement.

* Plot was not really a focus as far is this dev knew.

* COVID meant development didn't really start for real until spring 2022.

* Steve (and most of the other leads) didn't really seem to have much of a development plan. They In general seemed to have been on something of a power trip and often played favourites with people. A lot of people had left even before the closure announcement and the dev admitted that they they made a lot of poor decisions in general.

* Game did a massive 180 in early 2023 with the team switching to UE5 and became a (kinda sorta) remake of TS2 (unknown by whose decision. The dev doesn't specify but makes it clear that "no one" liked the initial version but that they didn't have much of a choice). Everything they had made until then was thrown out.

* The dev estimates that at least two more years would be needed on the game.

* Everyone who was part of the team/studio got fired possibly with the exception of Steve. He is unsure about that part.

* Most employee thought they would be safe from the Embracer purge since they were a smaller studio.

 

[nowhat]

On a related note:



Goes through the story of Free Radical and Timesplitters from the very beginning to the end. A quite sad story indeed.

 

[Kadve]

On a related note:



Goes through the story of Free Radical and Timesplitters from the very beginning to the end. A quite sad story indeed.

I dont think he even mentions this interview though and all the (if true) behind the scenes drama.

 

[nowhat]

I dont think he even mentions this interview though and all the (if true) behind the scenes drama.

Sure, that's more like a history recap if someone is interested.

 

[Kadve]

Oh and a guy on reddit claims that the initial pitch happened back in 2019. So that was 4 years with nothing to show for it.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

The first two games were basically unrelated levels and themes put together, that's what made them fun - the variety. I imagine it's possible this wasn't necessarily intentional as much as a result of the freedom to experiment with different concepts during development. So I guess they tried a similar approach for this sequel but were unsuccessful because it's much too expensive to make games that way nowadays.

 

[Physiognomonics]

I never understood this hype for the Timesplitters games. They were OK but compared to Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark they were such a disappointment.

 

[00_Zer0]

In some ways I feel bad for Free Radical and despise what Embracer has done to the game industry, but I can see where this studio and game was mismanaged from the start. It seems like TimeSplitters deserved better than this from all sides involved.

Embracer had to have known that a Battle Royale style game would take tremendous, unending man power and tons of money to keep going. To have switched focus so many times, and switch game engines late in the game surely didn't win FRD any favors with their owners.

After seeing some of the leaked artwork which remained faithful to the series I initially thought this was a good idea, but when I heard they were going to modernize the TS2 plotline with a new female lead over Cortez I rolled my eyes.

I'm thinking we may have dodged a bullet on this one. There is something a lot worse than a cancelled game in a beloved franchise, and that is one where they release a subpar game experience that never lives up to the expectations set by the originals.

Sadly, it sounded like a mismanaged train wreck from the start. Glad I still have the GameCube classics to fall back on, because it looks like this is the final nail in the coffin for a true TimeSplitters 4. The dream is dead.