After a month of rumor and speculation, Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors has reportedly confirmed a potential Dec. 11 closure date for game developer Free Radical Design. According to Video Games Chronicle on Nov. 28, the news was shared with employees via a private company email.
The bombshell before Christmas follows six months of uncertainty as Embracer attempted to carry out some form of major restructuring. It has since played a catalyst in the closure of Saints Row developer Volition and the marketed sale of Borderlands custodians Gearbox Software. Now, it’s the turn of Free Radical to face fate.
“As we move through the consultation process and face the potential closure of Free Radical Design on 11 December 2023, I want to express my gratitude for your commitment and the remarkable work you’ve done and still keep doing,” Wingefors wrote. “This is a challenging time for all of us but especially for you, and our focus is to support you as much as we can during this transition.”
Over 900 Embracer Group employees have already lost their jobs during the company’s second quarter. Those at Free Radical will be holding on to the slim sliver of hope offered by the non-committal wording of the address. Nevertheless, this has not stopped over half of the current workforce indicating they are looking for new horizons.
If this is to be the end, it would mark effectively the second death of this iconic name. The original incarnation of Free Radical emerged in April 1999 and was hailed for its iconic TimeSplitters series, which ended with Future Perfect releasing in 2004. Unfortunately, from here on out, the burgeoning developer would hit a catastrophic run of doomed projects.
First came the canceled Star Wars: Battlefront III, a third installment to the series pioneered by Pandemic Studios and LucasArts. As suggested by Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis, the project was extremely close to completion before the plug was pulled following a management change for the publisher. Soon after was the tragic tale of Haze, a PlayStation 3 exclusive published by Ubisoft that was hyped up as a Halo killer but found itself horrifically outmatched.
This disastrous year led to the company declaring bankruptcy by the end of 2008 before being bailed out by Crysis developer Crytek and renamed to Crytek UK. A planned TimeSplitters 4 was shelved in the process. Even this was not safe haven, however, with missing staff payments eventually leading toward their absorption into Dambuster Studios for Deep Silver.
In May 2021, Free Radical was reformed as its own studio once again with the intention of reviving TimeSplitters. It seems that, unfortunately, this project is set to become the third and final cancellation in its history.
