To the disappointment of many, including us, it was confirmed earlier this year that Free Radical Design, the developer behind the highly anticipated revival of TimeSplitters, would be closed down by Embracer Group and the game ultimately cancelled.
It was a dire end to what many had hoped would be a grand return to the shooter franchise that took the world by storm in the early '00s. For Steve Ellis, co-founder of Free Radical Design, the game's cancellation and studio closure was seemingly enough to deter him from ever being involved in TimeSplitters ever again.
In speaking with GamesIndustry,biz, Ellis notes that the whole experience was "a big letdown" and is quite convinced that he is done with TimeSplitters for good:
"It's probably the end of me being involved with TimeSplitters. 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."
Ellis also noted how impactful the studio closure was on younger developers, many of which had worked extensively on the new TimeSplitters for years before being laid off:
"They didn't get a chance to see through their first game. So moving onto other jobs, it is almost like starting from scratch. Some of them were maybe three years in. They have progressed so much, and they probably won't be going into junior roles, but they also don't have something they can point at and say 'here is the game I shipped'."
Footage of the game had been leaked earlier this year, with many noting the apparent similarities to Epic Games' Fortnite after Free Radical Design had pivoted from the first-person perspective that made the original TimeSplitters games so famous. Ellis says that many had jumped to the wrong conclusions, however, stating "Obviously it would be pointless to just clone Fortnite, so that's not what we were doing".