TimeSplitters reboot apparently started off as a ‘Fortnite clone’
An anonymous member of the seemingly abandoned TimeSplitters reboot has lifted the lid on what's going on and explained how the game started out as a Fortnite clone.
18th Dec 2023 15:30
Images via Free Radical Design
TimeSplitters reboot apparently started off as a ‘Fortnite clone’
An anonymous member of the seemingly abandoned TimeSplitters reboot has lifted the lid on what's going on and explained how the game started out as a Fortnite clone.
18th Dec 2023 15:30
Images via Free Radical Design
Layoffs and shutdowns have plagued the gaming industry this year, and too many talented creators have fallen to greedy business models. 2023 seemed rife with journalists, developers, and artists losing their roles in companies that had once seemed like a sure-thing. Sadly, Free Radical joined the swathes of creators to lose their livelihoods.
The team, that was apparently working on a reboot of the TimeSplitters series, now seem to have lost their access to the game's work and the project itself. As the return of TimeSplitters seems less and less likely by the day, some of the game's team has come forward to share some new details about its development.
TimeSplitters' reboot was once a free-to-play battle royale
Well, that makes for a change. An anonymous ex-member of the TimeSplitters reboot has come forward on the GamingLeaksandRumours subreddit and has claimed to have a lot of details about the game. They come together to paint an incredibly fascinating picture that diverts quite a long way from fan expectations - mostly by being a battle royale title.
"It was a F2P BR [Battle Royale] with some additional modes like DM [Deathmatch], TDM [Team Deathmatch], CTB [Capture the Bag] etc," the developer says. "Characters and skins were microtransactions. At least that was the plan."
There's word that it may not have stayed that way, though - "I personally think that Steve [Ellis, director] never intended to release a BR, he always intended to get the funding and the interest first and deviate once the investment was there. I could be wrong though. He's a hard man to read."
TimeSplitter team blames Embracer for their closure
When quizzed about the cancellation of the game and the sad closure of Free Radical, the anonymous team member put all of the blame on the parent company's (Embracer) mismanagement and failure to keep things moving comfortably.
"Mostly Embracer's mess," they say. "The prospect had been looming ever since really that the studio would close as they were looking to cut costs as much as possible. I think most of us foolishly believed that because we were relatively cheap as a studio by comparison that we'd be safer if we kept our heads down. We were wrong."
It's incredibly sad to see that yet another game team have bitten the dust, and if they're right about the reasons for it, it's even sadder to see that it's as a result of company negligence. Rest in peace, untitled TimeSplitters reboot - we hardly knew ye.
About The Author
Joseph Kime
Joseph Kime is the Senior Trending News Journalist for GGRecon from Devon, UK. Before graduating from MarJon University with a degree in Journalism, he started writing music reviews for his own website before writing for the likes of FANDOM, Zavvi and The Digital Fix. He is host of the Big Screen Book Club podcast, and author of Building A Universe, a book that chronicles the history of superhero movies. His favourite games include DOOM (2016), Celeste and Pokemon Emerald.
