Early this morning the staff of Free Radical discovered the building's locks had been changed with no explanation and were heavily guarded by security. A notice taped to the door informed them of a meeting that was to take place at a local hotel.
Co-founder Steve Ellis was described as "visibly upset" as he delivered the news to the staff, and apologized for the situation. The company had known for several months of the trouble after unfavorable reviews of their latest game Haze, along with the collapse of an exclusive contract with LucasArts Entertainment. They had been struggling to find a publisher for TimeSplitters 4, but without any financial backing were forced to close doors.
The company employed between 150-200 people and an inside source described them all as "shell-shocked" by the incident. Twenty employees are rumored to have been offered new positions at Ellis' new company, Pumpkin Beach while the rest of the staff received termination notices. Employees are expected to receive compensation through December, but no further.
*sigh*... they should've bet on the Wii...
ACTUALLY... wait... should Nintendo pick them up? Should Nintendo buy the company and take TS4?
They had been struggling to find a publisher for TimeSplitters 4, but without any financial backing were forced to close doors.
personally i'm glad these failures don't have a job anymore. Merry Christmas to them, hope they enjoy ramen and hot dogs for Christmas dinner.
personally i'm glad these failures don't have a job anymore. Merry Christmas to them, hope they enjoy ramen and hot dogs for Christmas dinner.
*sigh*... they should've bet on the Wii...
ACTUALLY... wait... should Nintendo pick them up? Should Nintendo buy the company and take TS4?
personally i'm glad these failures don't have a job anymore. Merry Christmas to them, hope they enjoy ramen and hot dogs for Christmas dinner.
the building's locks had been changed
ACTUALLY... wait... should Nintendo pick them up? Should Nintendo buy the company and take TS4?
You can't blame this ALL on the PS3. Free Radical had a contract to produce multiple titles with Brash Entertainment, who went under a few months back, and they also had a contract with LucasArts that fell through. Releasing a critically-panned exclusive FPS on the lowest-selling platform certainly hurt them, but external factors also played a huge role. Haze put them in a hole, and then all of their future contracts dried up so they couldn't dig out if they tried. This story simply isn't as one-dimensional as the dozens of Sony haters on here want it to be.
"The genre is too American for NCL to pay attention to it."
Agreed. Nintendo has expressed spreading more "Japan" to the rest of the world than vice versa (DQX).
You can't blame this ALL on the PS3. Free Radical had a contract to produce multiple titles with Brash Entertainment, who went under a few months back, and they also had a contract with LucasArts that fell through. Releasing a critically-panned exclusive FPS on the lowest-selling platform certainly hurt them, but external factors also played a huge role. Haze put them in a hole, and then all of their future contracts dried up so they couldn't dig out if they tried. This story simply isn't as one-dimensional as the dozens of Sony haters on here want it to be.
Thank you very much once again Sony.
Anybody really wanting to blame Free Radical or Factor 5 or EA's myriad studios that they just closed might want to read a short story called The Lottery to see what happens when you support a general strategy, and then deride it once it gets personal.