Crytek purchased the TimeSplitters developer in February, following a period of reorganizing that resulted in the layoff of 140 employees. In an interview with Develop, CEO Cevat Yerli explains that Crytek was picked to purchase the failing Free Radical because they offered the remaining staff the opportunity to create the sort of games they've always wanted to create.

"We are working with Free Radical on things that they always dreamed to do" Yerli said. "We are providing the team a roadmap and the chance to grow, which is why we were picked as a partner, and not anyone else."

Hopefully those dreams include finishing TimeSplitters 4.

Crytek giving Free Radical ‘dream projects' [Develop]

The company went into administration following the shutdown last week, and now Cameron Gunn of administrators ReSolve Partners have outlined plans to offload the leftovers. 140 employees were "made redundant" effective December 31st, with the remaining 40 being offered up as part of the company's sale, indicating "strong interest" by unnamed parties.

It remains unknown what the potential sale means for the future of Free Radical's various projects, and hopefully the leaked concept art won't be the last we've seen of TimeSplitters 4.

Free Radical Slashes 140 From Work Force [1UP]

Smashpad had a source inside the now-closed studio, noted for its TimeSplitters and Haze IPs, who said Pumpkin Beach was set up about four months ago in-house. "We were told that because the project was going to be quite different from Free Radical’s previous games," said Smashpad's source, "they were setting up a new company, sort of a new label for the game, to avoid the associations with TimeSplitters and Haze."

Avoiding associations with the universally-panned Haze? Sound strategy. The source semi-disputed rumors that Lucasarts was most displeased and took away Battlefront III, giving it to Rebellion. But he or she didn't elaborate on them being "not entirely true."

The story also links over to the Unofficial Free Radical Design Blog, which having no Free Radical Design to blog about, continues the story:

Sources explain Dave Doak had left Free Radical Design a month ago. He and Steve Ellis are now looking at creating a new game developer company called Pumpkin Beach. Little is known about their plans for this company but a website, http://www.pumpkinbeach.com/, has been reserved. It is possible TimeSplitters 4 could be sold to this new company. Maybe this new company was created as a rescue for TimeSplitters 4 but the lack of publisher support makes the idea a risky one.

During the meeting roughly 20 staff positions were offered into the new company for people at Free Radical Design. Codemasters and Monumental Games were also at the hotel used to hold the meeting to ask for CVs and applications for anyone who was interested.

So, there's some reason to be optimistic amongst the fallout; the jettisoned Free Radical employees either have jobs, or decent prospects, and TimeSplitters 4 is at minimum rumor-worthy, which is good, because this swrrt concept art surely needs a home.

Free Radical Founder Steve Ellis Opens New Studio [Smashpad]

As you may be aware, the studio I worked for (Free Radical) has just effectively gone bust. I had a great time working there and met some fantastic people along the way. Anyway, this is just to say that I'm currently looking for work. I've attached a bunch of images covering some of the things I've been up to recently. My skills include low and high poly modelling, texturing, digital sculpting and concepting.

Skills indeed. If you're a studio looking for talent, Nick's your guy. Now hit the jump and join with us in mourning what may never be.

Maybe we should do more of these resumes of sorts for those laid off in the industry.

Nick Carver [Thanks Ryan]

A recent trailer for TimeSplitters 4 that featured a parody of Star Wars has mysteriously disappeared from Free Radical's site. While no official comment about the trailer disappearance was forth coming it appears the question may be settled in this post found on the developer's official FAQ:

What happened to the latest TimeSplitters trailer (featuring "Sir Chimpalot")?

Some people with a sense of humour deficiency bizarrely thought that it infringed their copyright. We've got better things to do than argue about that kind of thing, so we took it down instead. Rest assured, though, that Sir Chimpalot will still feature in the next TimeSplitters game.

How strange. And I hear Free Radical is even working on something with Lucas. Hope this isn't the start of relationships going south.

We have no inclination if Free Radical plans to take your input seriously, or if it's looking for helpful formulas for disc replication — or if it's just toying with your emotions. Whatever the case, should you be emotionally invested in the TimeSplitters series, we'd recommend voicing your concerns.

The Wii is currently leading the poll, as of press time, by a very large margin.

I Want To Play TimeSplitters 4 on... [Free Radical - thanks, ]

Speaking with Free Radical script writer Rob Yescombe earlier today, he reiterated that Free Radical is indeed hard at work on Timesplitters 4.

"In the past Timesplitters has been very satirical at the expense of movies, this time it will be satirical at the expense of video games," Yescombe said.

The game is in the very early stages of development, Yescombe said. When I asked him what systems they were developing it for Yescombe said "unsigned at the moment."