Development of TimeSplitters 4

This logo was designed in August 2008 and was reused in the 2019 version of the game.
It's back! Featuring even more crazy characters, devastating weapons and heart pounding hot sweaty action. It's funny, it's frantic and it'll do things you've never seen before! No, not naked girls, even better than that! We can't tell you the details yet, the monkeys have a loaded banana pressed against our skull, but this game will take the first person shooter to gaming nirvana. Save the world or die laughing, Timesplitters 4 is coming to getcha!
—Free Radical's website

The release of TimeSplitters: Future Perfect in March 2005 was met with critical success but not commercial success. As this was a period where production costs were rapidly rising, this meant it would be hard to pitch a sequel to any publisher. This, combined with the fact that the team felt like they achieved all they could with the previous games, turned Free Radical's focus away onto creating a different type of game. In late September 2005, Free Radical would begin development on Haze, an anti-militaristic shooter, with Ubisoft as the publisher.

## 2007-08 - Pitch and Prototype

Pre-production began on TimeSplitters 4 in early 2007, without a publisher. It was believed that with successful marketing, publishers would be able to see the demand for a new TimeSplitters game and sign it once it got pitched to them. The game was planned for next-generation systems, with Wii being considered. The highlight of the game would be environmental reactions, with six elements (fire, ice, electricity, acid, gas, explosive) and the ability to pick up and throw objects allowing for limitless possibilities during gameplay. There would be a focus on satirizing video games unlike previous games which satirized movies.
The pitch did not manage to attract any publishers, as the budget required was large and there was no playable prototype available. Therefore, a prototype was planned to be made on an upgraded version of the FRDEngine, with the upgrades planned to be finished by the beginning of 2008.

Gears of WarHaloHalf-Life, never shownTimeSplitters 4 Teaser 1'We are satirists of the highest order. Watch our TimeSplitters 4 teaser here, and prepare to laugh. Granted, you might not laugh when you're watching it, but it's better to be prepared just in case.' (released October 9 2007)
Marketing increased in 2008, with concept art being revealed. However, there was little discussion on what the game would be about, other than the fact it would have a diverse set of characters and a story mode (written by Rob Yescombe). The plan to upgrade the FRDEngine was abandoned for the creation of a 'new' engine, which was an amalgamation of the old games' engine and the FRDEngine. With this new engine, the game would have more advanced lighting than Haze but at the same time increased performance on consoles. Following the release of Haze, Free Radical created a prototype and began pitching to publishers again. The prototype took place on a Victorian castle, meant to showcase environmental interactions, detachable limbs, challenges and multiplayer.

TimeSplitters 4 Teaser 2A second teaser trailer was released on October 6 2008 but would be taken down after LucasArts requested its removal.
However publishers were unwilling to invest in the game, as the failure of Haze reduced their confidence in the company and TimeSplitters was considered a difficult game to market. In late November 2008, LucasArts would cancel the project it was working on with Free Radical, *Star Wars Battlefront III*.

With almost 185 employees and no projects signed, Free Radical would look into creating in-house projects, such as WiiWare. At the same time, Activision asked Free Radical to create a new GoldenEye game. Immediately, work started on a prototype, with the dam level being recreated for PS3 and Xbox 360. However, Activision would move the project to Eurocom for unspecified reasons. Free Radical then tried to pitch the game one final time, this time to Eidos, the publisher that had given them their first contract in 1999. They declined.

The same day, Steve Ellis would begin discussions in private about placing the company in administration. Any attempts to find an acquisitor had not been successful and the company was running out of money. Despite the future looking bleak for the company, the Christmas party that evening, which was paid months in advance, was filled with joy, as employees expressed their happiness at having a chance to work at Free Radical. Every employee had been given a Christmas bonus and there was still a chance the company could be saved. A week later, however, employees would find the Free Radical building locked, with security patrols and notes advising staff to move to a Novotel. It was there that the employees would find out the company had been placed into administration. Now controlled by ReSolve Partners, the company would make 143 employees redundant, leaving 40 behind to keep the company running. Interest in purchasing the studio was high, with Rebellion (developers of the old-gen versions of Battlefront III) being one of the interested parties. The company would eventually be purchased by Crytekwhom the remaining employees respected as they were known for their technological achievements and were planning to allow the studio to operate as an autonomous unit.

## 2009-14 - Monkeying Around

The thing with TimeSplitters is, if we made a sequel to TimeSplitters, nobody would accept this apart from some fans, and we don't know how big the fan community is unfortunately.
— Cevat Yerli, former Crytek CEO
Following the acquisition of Free Radical, the company was renamed Crytek UK and relocated from Sandiacre to the Southreef complex. This brought them in the center of Nottingham, gave them access to new and improved infrastructure and access to potential recruits at the nearby Nottingham Trent University. The company was soon put to work on the multiplayer for Crysis 2 and console ports for the first Crysis game. However Crytek still had an interest in doing a TimeSplitters sequel and the search for a publisher began again in 2010. One of them was Bandai Namco, with whom they discussed the publishing of a new game under the title *TimeSplitters - Predictive Warfare*. The discussions took place throughout 2010 and early 2011 but no contracts were signed. In March 2011, Bandai Namco chose to terminate the project and had to compensate Crytek UK 1.162 million Euros for its development costs. If Crytek had found a different publisher for the game before the end of March 2012, they would have needed to pay Bandai Namco 436 thousand Euros. Interest in creating a sequel wasn't lost following this but Crytek UK's focus was placed into creating the multiplayer of Crysis 3 (as well as doing R&D on a Wii U version), creating the Xbox 360 version of Warface and developing Homefront 2.

In the second half of 2012, Crytek tried to see how much interest there was in creating a sequel to TimeSplitters but were not satisfied with the results. As they were unwilling to fund the game themselves, they considered making the sequel a free-to-play game on their upcoming gaming platform GFACE or using Kickstarter, though they didn't think it wouldn't be right for a large company to use crowdfunding. Fans created pages and petitions to raise awareness for a TimeSplitters sequel, which were acknowledged by Crytek but only helped to show them that the community was not large enough. However, they would give permission and support to a fan-made project made on CryEngine. This project would go on to become TimeSplitters Rewind, which passed through many issues but is still in development.

Following THQ's bankruptcy, Crytek would acquire the rights to the Homefront IP in early 2013. At the same time, Crytek looked into creating a sequel to TimeSplitters for the upcoming Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles with Take-Two Interactive as the publisher. It is not known if this was ever discussed or just an idea. Later that year, they would enter into an agreement with Koch Media regarding the publishing of Homefront 2, under its subsidiary Deep Silver. The deal was announced on June 2014, where the game was titled Homefront: The Revolution.

During the same month, it was revealed that since March, Crytek employees were receiving partial or delayed paychecks following the cancellation of projects like Ryse 2. This would culminate in many Crytek UK employees filing grievance letters and stopping going to work. By late July, Crytek and Koch Media had entered into a deal, selling the Homefront IP and the assets of Crytek UK to them for a total of 1.5 million Euros and royalties on Homefront: The Revolution. Crytek would retain the TimeSplitters and Second Sight IPs, however Koch Media was given the right to insert two campaign missions (Siberia and Chicago) and two arcade levels (Mexican Mission and Training Ground) from TimeSplitters 2 into an arcade machine in Homefront: The Revolution, provided this easter egg was not promoted. Employees would be transferred over to continue work on the game as per UK law, forming what would become Deep Silver Dambuster Studios. Homefront: The Revolution released in 2016 and included the TimeSplitters 2 easter egg, however no arcade levels were available. Years later, it would be discovered that all of TimeSplitters 2 was included inside the game and could be unlocked via a code. The code was not meant to be released however, and the full game is only available because it would have taken a longer time to create a version with only the specific missions.

## 2018-23 - A New Hope

THQ Nordic AB acquired Koch Media in February 2018. Koch Media would acquire the TimeSplitters and Second Sight IPs from Crytek on August of that year for 1.7 million Euros. A year later, Steve Ellis would join Koch Media under a 'Secret Role' and THQ Nordic AB would rebrand as Embracer Group AB, in order to separate itself from THQ Nordic GmbH. Following two years of exploring ways to bring TimeSplitters back, it would be revealed in May 2021 that Free Radical Design was recreated by Deep Silver and that a new TimeSplitters game was in development. This new studio would be headed by Steve Ellis and David Doak, directors of the original Free Radical.

However there would be no more information regarding what the new TimeSplitters project would be about. Following a failed 2 billion-dollar deal in 2023, Embracer Group initiated a restructuring program aimed at increasing profits and decreasing debt. One of their goals was the closing of studios and termination of projects that have not yet been announced and with low projected returns. The recreated Free Radical Design would end up being closed on December 11, with its staff being laid off.

Unfortunately, following this consultation process, no viable alternative has been identified to avoid the closure of the Company and I am therefore writing to confirm that your employment will terminate today, 11 December 2023 (the "Termination Date") by reason of redundancy.
— Internal email sent by PLAION (Koch Media)
With only one source of information regarding the cancelled 2023 version, a detailed section cannot be written as there is insufficient knowledge. See the TimeSplitters (2021) page for all the currently available information.

## References

Thanks to Battlefront Archives, Falz/Sandwave and Vincent\_R for their help.

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