Free Radical’s classic TimeSplitters and Second Sight series now have a new owner, and new game seems to be already on the cards. THQ Nordic, via Koch Media (which it owns), have snapped up licenses for both games -and the publisher says its teams are excited to be creating a new product in the TimeSplitters series.
In a press release, Koch Media CEO Klemens Kundratitz said, “we are hugely excited to have acquired Timesplitters. The original games gave fans a massive content offer and provided a pure and genuinely fun arcade shooter experience. We have many fans of the Timesplitters series among our own staff who are passionate about creating a product that will thrill todays gaming audience.”
Whether this is TimeSplitters 4 or a re-release of the TimeSplitters trilogy is unclear, but the note about “creating a product” and “todays gaming audience” suggests something new. This is especially exciting because Free Radical themselves, who are now known as Dambuster, were bought by THQ Nordic in 2014 – so we could be getting a TimeSplitters 4 made by the original developers.
After their deal with LucasArts to create Star Wars: Battlefront III fell through and the poor reaction to their PS3 exclusive title Haze, Free Radical were purchased by Crytek in 2009 and put to work on a new Homefront game. After both the Homefront license and the studio were sold to Deep Silver, the team continued work on the game under their new name of Dambuster – although sadly Homefront: The Revolution didn’t end up that great.
Crytek initially kept the TimeSplitters license when they sold Free Radical, and were actually in talks with a mod team to recreate TimeSplitters in CryEngine – although those talks broke down. Despite the update last year, don’t expect to see TimeSplitters Rewind any time soon, especially now that the license is with THQ Nordic.
The new TimeSplitters product (whatever it may be) will be published by Deep Silver, which are also part of the THQ Nordic family – and it will also cover any new games based on Second Sight.