The information centre on the game making god Free radical Design!
Richard Smith has placed some TimeSplitters 4 characters on his website. There are character models for Sheriff of The Martian Wild West and Ye Olde Wench. This can also give us clues on some of the time periods and locations to perhaps be involved in TimeSplitters 4.
Click the link below to view the characters.
A website specific to Battlefront III has posted some models for Battlefront III that haven’t been shown elsewhere.
Included is Chancellor Palpatine, more Han Solo, a rebel soldier, a royal imperial guard, a Jawa, a Kaminoan and more of Shara the Bounty Hunter.
Click the link below to view the pictures.
Continue reading ‘More screenshots for Battlefront III found’ »
A former Free Radical employee called Richard Smith had apparently posted some renders for the secret LucasArts project, which is now confirmed to be Battlefront III, on his website. However, it seems these pictures have since been removed. Luckily, Playstation Universe has retrieved these pictures in time. These pictures have proof the game is Star Wars : Battlefront III, unless someone is trying to trick us by placing the logo falsely. The renders are models of Han Solo and Sahra The Bounty Hunter. Wether there were more renders is unknown.
Another website claim they have a source confirming the movement of Battlefront III development to Rebellion. The website do not state the source. This is still a rumour until Rebellion or LucasArts confirm the news.
To see the character models, click the link below.
Continue reading ‘Renders for the secret LucasArts project revealed. The game appears to be Battlefront III’ »
Cameron Gunn from the administration company, ReSolve has given this information to 1UP.com:
We made around 140 employees redundant yesterday, effective 31 December (the date up to which they had been paid). We’re still trading on with the remaining 40 or so employees, have advertised the business for sale and have received some strong interest.
No comment is given to where the interest is comming from and it is unknown what people have not been made redundant.
Via the Smashpad blog an interview with a Free Radical Design employee gave a little detail on the new company, Pumpkin Beach. From this we know that the project Pumpkin Beach is working on, is going to be different from the games we would expect from Free Radical design, like the TimeSplitters series.
“Pumpkin Beach was set up a few months ago actually. The project was worked on in-house at FRD for a while. Then we were told that because the project was going to be quite different from Free Radical’s previous games, they were setting up a new company, sort of a new label for the game, to avoid the associations with TimeSplitters and Haze.
A quote against the suspects that the secret LucasArts project has been taken away from Free Radical Design was also given.
“As for the Lucasarts thing, I’m not sure that’s entirely true. I know I was working on the Lucasarts game until very recently.”
An employee of Free Radical Design has given word to 1UP news. What was said is:
“Free Radical has *not* closed. There’s still a skeleton crew of guys staying on maintaining business as usual, and nobody’s been formally made redundant.”
But we already know this. What is interesting is what was said next:
“There’s a number of cool projects in development–two of which are getting quite a lot of publisher interest already”
This is good news. It isn’t clear what games are showing interest. TimeSplitters 4 could be one of them. But there could be many different game ideas Free Radical Design has been working on. It will be interesting to see what these are.
With this news it is hopeful that Free Radical Design will come out through administration with no problems.
Nick Carver, a concept artist that worked for Free radical Design, has quit Free Radical Design in it’s worst hour. During this time he has used the concept art for Timesplitters 4 to help him in his search for a new job. This has leaked out to the internet.
Some good news for us. We get to look at pretty pictures. And one interesting thing to note are the two new timesplitter ideas. The concept art is shown in the full post.
Continue reading ‘TimeSplitters 4 concept art released from quit concept artist.’ »
Edge have supposedly recieved word from ReSolve, the administrators for Free radical Design.
“Not a single person had been made redundant, though the company reserves the right to do so. The staff have been paid December salaries and told to go home. What we are trying to do right now for the first few days is understand the present financial position of the company. We have a team of people doing that right now, who are on site looking into the records.”
The good news is that, apparently, the company is already having interest shown and if ReSolve choose to market the company a sale is likely.
“We are very confident that we will achieve a sale if we decide to market the business. It’s a testament to the employees and the regard of the company that a significant interest has already been shown.”
Certain staff have been asked to staff behind to work on two projects according to Edge. This is interesting because one of those projects is quite likely to be the secret LucasArts project. It may mean Free Radical Design did not lose the rights to the game after all?
According to reports, during the meeting that happened yesterday upon the closure of the Free Radical Design studio, Steve Ellis explained to the staff, in an upset and apologetic way, that they have been looking for a publisher or a buyer for TimeSplitters 4 or the company over the last 6 months and had also searched the USA but no offers came their way.
Free Radical Design had apparently lost rights to develop the secret Lucas Arts game and HAZE was reviewed poorly which added problems along with having no offers for a TimeSplitters 4 publisher.
Sources explain Dave Doak had left Free Radical Design a month ago. He and Steve Ellis are now looking at creating a new game developer company called Pumpkin Beach. Little is known about their plans for this company but a website, http://www.pumpkinbeach.com/, has been reserved. It is possible TimeSplitters 4 could be sold to this new company. Maybe this new company was created as a rescue for TimeSplitters 4 but the lack of publisher support makes the idea a risky one.
During the meeting roughly 20 staff positions were offered into the new company for people at Free Radical Design. Codemasters and Monumental Games were also at the hotel used to hold the meeting to ask for CVs and applications for anyone who was interested.
Staff at Free Radical Design have been paid up to the end of December and they have also recived an Xmas bonus.
It is belived during this time 40 people will keep their jobs at Free Radical Design through the new year to mainly work on TimeSplitters 4 concepts although the game’s future is uncertain. Further announcements from the administrators are expected shortly. The first stage of the administration will involve “assessing the financial position of the company” and in the next few days more news should be available.
Sadly today Free Radical Design had to shut it’s doors and all employees where directed to a nearby hotel for a meeting. It was placed into administration yesterday afternoon. The administrators have left these quotes.
“We will be spending the next three or four days assessing the financial position of the company but it’s business as usual, although we have asked that almost all of the employees apart from a skeleton crew remain at home.”
“All employees have been paid up until the end of December and we hope to make another announcement before Christmas or very soon thereafter, but we must stress at this stage that it’s business as usual.”
The future for Free Radical Design could be gloomy. We will all have to hope and pray the company will continued securely with a new owner.