Citing sources near the studio, Video Video games Chronicle has reported that Timesplitters developer Free Radical is dealing with closure by Embracer Group.

The unique Free Radical filed for chapter in 2008 after the cancelation of Star Wars: Battlefront III and a failed bid at a Goldeneye 007 remake for Activision. The stays of the studio have been purchased up by Crytek, rebranded Crytek UK, and the workers went to assist a few of that developer’s video games, such because the Crysis sequence and Warface. Throughout this time, quite a lot of the workers reportedly left the studio. Many of the remaining workers was later transferred to Dambuster Studios underneath Deep Silver, the place they labored on Homefront: The Revolution and Lifeless Island 2.

In 2021, Deep Silver (a subsidiary of Plaion and Embracer Group) reformed Free Radical with a few of the key workers returning, together with Steve Ellis and David Doak. The intention was for them to revive the Timesplitters sequence.

Based on Video Video games Chronicle, Embracer and Plaion “should seek the advice of workers for at least 30 days earlier than making any redundancies, together with exploring methods of avoiding them.” Which means the studio might stay open, however as VGC initially reported, many key workers are at the moment searching for work.

If the closure of Free Radical goes by way of (and it appears like it’s going to), this might be one other in an extended line of closures and layoffs for Embracer Group. This follows the lack of a possible $2 billion funding that reportedly fell by way of earlier this 12 months. It’s been actually painful to see so many losses as a result of failures of a very optimistic, expansion-hungry company.

Past Embracer Group, many different corporations have been shedding large parts of their workers, together with Epic Video games and Ubisoft. It’s not a enjoyable time to be overlaying this trade, not to mention working in it.