‘TimeSplitters’ developer shares footage of cancelled reboot

Free Radical Design’s head of art Rob Steptoe has shared footage from the studio’s presumably-cancelled TimeSplitters game.

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Last December, it was confirmed that Free Radical Design would be closing down with immediate effect, with owners Embracer Group carrying out a fierce restructuring program.

Since the studio was relaunched in 2021, it had been working on a fourth Timesplitters game. “You asked us and we listened. We have been working on plans to bring the TimeSplitters franchise back to life,” parent company Embracer said at the time.

Follow-up details were scarce and while a new TimeSplitters game hasn’t been officially cancelled, everyone who was working on it has since been laid off.

However Steptoe shared a five-minute video featuring footage of the game in a now-deleted post on LinkedIn. The game was being developed under the title TimeSplitters Next, and the footage was captured in July 2023. The video has been archived here.

Saw a ex-dev posted time splitters 2 gameplay and figured I’d re-upload it before embracer nuke it pic.twitter.com/qJeYuKqtrk

— Zac Preece (@zac2806) March 5, 2024

Following the closure of Free Radicals, an anonymous developer spoke to the Free Radical Archive project, revealing that the original plan for TimeSplitters 4 was to create a “Fortnite clone” with a number of microtransactions. “Nobody wanted that really, not even us, but we didn’t have much of a choice for a long time,” they said.

They went on to say development shifted at some point in 2023, with the team pivoting to create a TimeSplitters 2 Remake that would feature reworked levels, a What If-style storyline, and levels from both the original TimeSplitters and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect.

They claimed the game was still two years away from being finished but “as of this moment in time, it’s cancelled.”

In other news, Warner Bros. has said it will pivot away from “volatile” AAA games to focus on live service and mobile titles following the underwhelming response to Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.