Free Radical Design, the British studio whose founders created GoldenEye 007, is no more, as 80 staff lose their jobs two weeks before Christmas.
It had been rumoured for weeks and now it has finally happened: Free Radical Design is no more. The studio that created the much loved PlayStation 2 era TimeSplitters trilogy, and Second Sight, has been closed down by owner Embracer Group and all staff made redundant.
There’s no official announcement as such but the studio’s website currently reads: 404 Company Not Found 🙁
Numerous former employees have taken to social media, to confirm the news and console each other, while other UK studios have attempted to offer new roles to those laid off.
Free Radical was originally founded in 1999, by several Rare veterans that worked on GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. After getting into financial trouble, it was bought by Crytek in the late 2000s and essentially shut down and transformed into Dead Island 2 developer Dambuster Studios.
The more recent incarnation of Free Radical was essentially a new company, founded by Embracer Group with the help of original founders Steve Ellis and David Doak, and supposedly dedicated to creating a new TimeSplitters game.
The studio had been in operation for over two years, but nothing was ever shown of the new game. It’s more than likely that evidence of its existence will begin to leak out now though, as the last chance for a new entry fades away.
The closure adds to the tally of around 1,000 employees who have been let go from Embracer Group this year, after a still unspecified financing deal fell through and the company had already spent billions acquiring smaller studios and IP.
Over 6,000 video game jobs have been lost this year, at everywhere from 343 Industries and Naughty Dog to Team17 and Epic Games, and it shows no sign of stopping.
We’ll have a wider report on the current state of the industry, and why all this is happening, in a special article tomorrow. Our sympathies go to all those affected.
The last day at FRD was very different from what I imagined. I don’t think it sunk in properly just yet, but handed my keys in and left the building the last time. It’s Time to Split pic.twitter.com/n1UGELsoED
— Adam Kiraly (@94Kiraly) December 11, 2023
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