Free Radical, which went into administration before Christmas, has been bought by Far Cry and Crysis developer Crytek.
SPOnG has been told by Free Radical screen writer, Rob Yescombe, that the deal was completed around 9pm yesterday.
Yescombe, who was among staff celebrating last night, told SPOnG, "I'm so far over the moon I'm over Mars... It's a perfect match."
Asked whether the Nottingham-based developer will continue to operate from its current premises he said that it "Looks that way for now, but we'll have to see."
Asked for further details on how autonomous Free Radical will remain and whether staff that lost their jobs as a result of the company's problems will be able to return, Yescombe said, "To be honest, I haven't got any answers for those questions yet." He went on to say that it is unclear whether the addition of Free Radical to Crytek will mean we'll start to see console games from the normally PC-focused German dev, or whether it means the Nottingham developer will be moved toward PC work.
"It's true to say that our creative ambitions are very much in like with Crytek's, and I think that has been a deciding factor in this deal. That, and they're just all-round excellent guys", Yescombe added.
On the subject of what the developer's project line-up looks like post-buyout, Yescombe did tease that there will be "More soon."
Reports were widespread in late December that Free Radical had shut down, but SPOnG learned at the time that, rather than suffering a full closure, the studio had gone into administration. It would continue to operate with a skeleton staff while administrators looked for a solution to the company's financial problems. That solution, it is now clear, turned out to be Crytek.
SPOnG has been told by Free Radical screen writer, Rob Yescombe, that the deal was completed around 9pm yesterday.
Yescombe, who was among staff celebrating last night, told SPOnG, "I'm so far over the moon I'm over Mars... It's a perfect match."
Asked whether the Nottingham-based developer will continue to operate from its current premises he said that it "Looks that way for now, but we'll have to see."
Asked for further details on how autonomous Free Radical will remain and whether staff that lost their jobs as a result of the company's problems will be able to return, Yescombe said, "To be honest, I haven't got any answers for those questions yet." He went on to say that it is unclear whether the addition of Free Radical to Crytek will mean we'll start to see console games from the normally PC-focused German dev, or whether it means the Nottingham developer will be moved toward PC work.
"It's true to say that our creative ambitions are very much in like with Crytek's, and I think that has been a deciding factor in this deal. That, and they're just all-round excellent guys", Yescombe added.
On the subject of what the developer's project line-up looks like post-buyout, Yescombe did tease that there will be "More soon."
Reports were widespread in late December that Free Radical had shut down, but SPOnG learned at the time that, rather than suffering a full closure, the studio had gone into administration. It would continue to operate with a skeleton staff while administrators looked for a solution to the company's financial problems. That solution, it is now clear, turned out to be Crytek.
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Comments
Horatio 4 Feb 2009 12:32
1/3
Yay! New Timesplitters with the Cysis engine? Works for me!
Jake 4 Feb 2009 12:55
2/3
Wow a developer that can't make good games with one that can't make games that run on consoles or decent spec PC's - what a great match!
config 4 Feb 2009 13:51
3/3
Harsh and untrue - FRD has had a run of good games. Timesplitters have all been great shooters. Just because Second Sight didn't sell well doesn't mean it wasn't any good. And Haze, well, it didn't live up to the hype, but it was still a good game.
As for Crytek - I'm with you on the PC spec thing, but it's the same with most PC games TBH
As for Crytek - I'm with you on the PC spec thing, but it's the same with most PC games TBH