Free Radical Co-Founder: TimeSplitters Cancellation 'Was a Big Letdown' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 26 March 2024 / 2,746 Views
Embracer Group shutdown developer Free Radical Design in December 2023, along with cancelling a new entry in the TimeSplitters series.
Free Radical Design co-founder Steve Ellis in an interview with GamesIndustry, who worked on the original TimeSplitters games, said this is likely the end of him being involved with the franchise and the cancellation of the new entry "was a big letdown."
"It's probably the end of me being involved with TimeSplitters," said Ellis. "I don't know if Plaion or Embracer will do anything with it. I don't know what it would take to get me to want to go through all that again. It was a big letdown.
Following the shutdown of the studio, leaked footage of an early build of the cancelled TimeSplitters game appeared online.
"Personally… I would never release footage of a half-finished game because you're going to get people jumping to the wrong conclusion about what it is," said Ellis. "Obviously it would be pointless to just clone Fortnite, so that's not what we were doing.
"We went through a number of different ideas. But there were three distinct concepts that we tried. And the one that the leaked video showed was not the one we were working on when we got cancelled. We had changed to quite a different concept, and everyone on the team was really enthusiastic about it."
He added, "Some [of the concepts] had different risks of backlash from the old fans because of how much we changed. But the concept we settled on in the end, I was quite hopeful that it would have satisfied everyone. A 20-year-old game will feel like a 20-year-old game if you don't change anything. Those fans are an important group to please, but you can't make a profitable game by only selling to those guys."
Ellis is currently taking a break from game developing, however, during the interview he admitted to having Unity open.
"I did have an idea that I would do something that wasn't games," but he said. "But… I always end up gravitating back. It's what I've done for nearly 30 years."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
