Free Radical closure confirmed as TimeSplitters developers bemoan ‘broken industry’
Free Radical Design looks to have been closed, after the UK-based TimeSplitters studio removed its website and employees posted farewell messages on social media.
VGC reported last month that Free Radical was at threat of being closed just two years after it was established, as part of huge company-wide cuts at Embracer and its owned publishers.
This was followed by another report, in which sources told VGC that Plaion had acknowledged in a company email that the studio could be closed on December 11, following the completion of a consultation process.
That closure now appears to be confirmed, after the Nottingham-based company replaced its website with the message: “404 Company Not Found :-(“.
Multiple developers also posted on LinkedIn today, claiming that all 80 remaining staff at the company have been let go. VGC has asked Embracer for comment.
“Well, that’s it, officially the final day of our time at Free Radical Design and an entire studio (just over 80 people) is out of work,” wrote Free Radical’s former IT Manager. “It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with everyone here. There are some supremely talented people that are now in need of work.”
“And it’s over. My final day at Free Radical Design,” added a senior artist on LinkedIn. “It sees myself and just over 80 people out of work at the worst time of year for it to happen.”
A QA designer added: “Free Radical Design was a hub of creativity, but sadly, we join an ever-growing list of casualties in a broken industry where entire studios are treated as replaceable cogs in a soulless machine fixated on nothing but share prices.”
For the past six months, Embracer has been carrying out a restructuring plan which has already seen some game studios closed and some projects
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