While many were looking forward to the revival of the classic FPS series, Timesplitters 4 won’t be happening due to unfortunate reasons. According to a report by Video Games Chronicle, the parent company Embracer Group has been going through a restructuring program, which is resulting in studios shutting down and new projects being cancelled.
The beloved series’ first three games were released between 2000 and 2005, and the first game was an exclusive title for the PlayStation 2. Timesplitters 4 would have been the revival of the franchise onto a modern generation of consoles.
Even Before Leaving the Studio, the Minds Behind Timesplitters 4 Are Looking for a New Job
Based on people around Free Radical Design, the studio has been a part of a major evaluation. Accordingly, the employees have been notified that the studio could shut down soon enough. Based on UK employment law, Plaion, employees are consulted for a minimum of 30 days before any kind of reductions are made.
There’s a small chance that the studio could escape shutting down, but sources from VGC have scoured LinkedIn to find out that 15 employees have already put out posts looking for new work. All in all, the talent behind a hypothetical Timesplitter 4 may soon be working on different projects.
Some of these are crucial people including a senior artist, senior technical artist, game designer, lead game designer, and the studio’s IT manager. While we don’t know what this truly means for TimeSplitters 4, it certainly hints at the project either being canceled or taking even more time (perhaps years) to see the light of day.
Free Radical Design’s initial days in 1999 saw the development of TimeSplitters and Second Sight. They may have been popular, but the studio’s downfall saw it going bankrupt in 2008, especially after the Star Wars: Battlefront project.
Whether or Not Timesplitters Will Get Another Game, the Series Will Always Be Dear to the Community
Whether or not TimeSplitters 4 will ever be a thing, there’s certainly a lot the previous games have left for us to cherish. The community considered these games to be spiritual successors to titles like Perfect Dark and GoldenEye 007 because of the overlapping themes in design, gameplay, and development.
The first game itself had so much going for it, that players expected newer games to hold that kind of standard. For instance, the campaign was playable in both, single-player and multiplayer modes. Furthermore, there were 125 characters to play, with several voice actors doing justice to their personalities.
Timesplitters was based on a temporal war, where creatures used time crystals in order to traverse through time. In doing so, they were starting to rupture human history. This is what set the foundation for the level design, which took place between 1935 and 2035. The concept alone was cool enough to attract players.
The game even had a map maker, which allowed players to further personalize their gameplay experience. The default game itself included tons of unlockable rewards that didn’t need a lot of grinding, which included characters, modes, maps, etc.
After the success of the game, two other titles followed, and Timesplitters 4 was very much going to happen according to an announcement in 2007.
It was going to be an exclusive title for the PlayStation 3. Based to this, scriptwriter Rob Yescombe commented: “TimeSplitters 4 is happening” but stated that the game was “in the very early concept stages, and as yet it’s unsigned to any publisher.”
However, with the ups and downs of different games by the studio, they were forced into thinking of different ideas and coming up with newer projects.
A few years ago, there was a revival that gave the community hope for Timesplitters 4. Unfortunately, it seems like the studio has yet again hit a low and we may not see the game for a long time. Maybe, never.
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