free-radical-design posts

Developer Crytek's previous games (Far Cry, Crysis and Crysis Warhead) have all had solid single player experiences but their multiplayer modes have never caught on with a large audience. Crysis 2, due out in late 2010, is hoping to change that by having Crytek UK (formely Free Radical Design) concentrate solely on the multiplayer features.

VG247.com quotes Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli as saying, "That is all they are doing, with a full team on it, and they are blasting forward at full speed with more focus and dedication than I've ever had before at Crytek." However at the moment they are keeping the specifics of their multiplayer plans for Crysis 2 a secret.

A lot of folks thought we might get an official announcement of Star Wars Battlefront 3 at last night's Video Game Awards. But the action game sequel, still not officially announced by publisher LucasArts, might still be in play. Fan site Battlefront3.net claims they got an email from a casting director Chris Marazzo who told them, " . . . Battlefront 3 is also in development. It was by far the most fun and coolest casting I ever worked on."

The first two games in the Battlefront series, developed by the now shut down Pandemic Studios, were highly successful in terms of sales. Free Radical Design was supposedly working on Battlefront 3 but LucasArts is rumored to have pulled the game from the developer last year. The developer was close to shutting down before being acquired by Crytek.

Nearly a year ago, Free Radical Design was in danger of shutting down, until Crytek extended their big money hand and bought the UK based developer. It also renamed the company Crytek UK. Now comes word that the developer is working on their first project for their new masters.

So what is it? While the developer was supposedly working on Timesplitters 4 before being bought by Crytek, a new article at Develop seems to indicate that Crytek UK is working on something new. A rep at the studio stated, "We are currently concepting up an original IP that we hope will become a defining game series for the UK studio." Since they are in the concept phase it may be some time before the game is revealed.

After delaying the game from an initial fall 2008 release, Codemasters is finally preparing their third person action game Damnation for a release late this week on Steam (and in stores the day after Memorial Day). While the "steampunk" style title from developer Blue Omega Entertainment is something of an unknown factor, there is an incentive to pre-ordering the game on Steam

That incentive is a free Codemasters title, specifically the 2005 third person action game Second Sight. The title from the team formerly known as Free Radical Design (and now known as Crytek UK) featured a character who learned how to use his psi abilities to his advantage. You can download and play Second Sight for free immediately when you pre-order Damnation; it's a $9.99 value on Steam

The rumors are indeed true. As we reported last night, German-based developer Crytek has indeed bought the UK based studio Free Radical Design. With the purchase comes a name chance as Free Radical turns into Crytek UK. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

Free Radical went into bankruptcy protection late in 2008 as the developer reportedly lost the chance to develop Star Wars Battlefront 3. The new deal with Crytek will allow the UK studio to stay operational. According to Gamesindustry.biz about 40 people at the now former Free Radical will stay on with the new Crytek UK. Before its financial problems Free Radical had over 140 team members. It's currently unknown if the developer will continue to work on the previously announced game Timesplitters 4.

After weeks of speculation, at least two separete stories on the Interweb have posted up word that UK developer Free Radical Design has found itself a buyer. 1Up.com reports that Free Radical's scriptwriter Rob Yescombe has told them it's German-based Crytek (the original Far Cry, Crysis and Crysis Warhead) has bought the company. Our sister site Joystiq has also heard the same thing from an anonymous source.

If true (and we expect to hear something official tomorrow) this move would represent only the latest expansion for Crytek. Besides their home office in Frankfurt, they have launched other development studios in the past two years in Kiev, Ukraine, Seoul, South Korea and Budapest, Hungary. They also purchased the former Black Sea Studios in Sofia, Bulgaria and renamed it Crytek Black Sea

It's the weekend so we feel free to post up an article that is squarely in the rumor category. Once again this info comes from semi-reliable site Videogaming247.com who claims that their unnamed but supposedly reliable inside source claims the Star Wars: Battlefront game series is heading back to developer Pandemic, who created the first two games in the multiplayer oriented series for LucasArts in 2004 and 2005 before being bought by Electronic Arts.

While never officially announced by any of the parties involved, it's all but out there on the net that UK based Free Radical Design was set to make Star Wars: Battlefront III but for reasons that are still unclear they lost the rights to make that game. With Pandemic now owned by EA that means if the Battlefront franchise really does head back to Pandemic it will make the second such Star Wars game to be under development at an EA owned studio (BioWare is of course working on the MMO title Star Wars: The Old Republic).

Last month UK based Free Radical Design announced that it was being put into bankruptcy and laying off about 75 percent of its team members. One of the projects that has been rumored to be in development was Star Wars Battlefront 3, a continuation of the multiplayer oriented action series from LucasArts.

Now a leaked ShakyCam trailer has hit YouTube that supposedly shows over 5 minutes of gameplay footage of Star Wars Battlefront 3. The footage, which supposedly comes from an alpha build of game shown during an internal meeting last November, is quite extensive (the video upload apparently happened 10 hours ago from a UK based resident).

There's both on-foot and vehicle gameplay shown in the trailer along with some story-based cut-scenes (heck there's even some Gungan and Ewok on-foot action). At the moment the footage appears to be the genuine article although we suspect it could be taken down at any moment. In the meantime rumors still are flying that Star Wars Battlefront 3 is still in development but at another UK studio, Rebellion.

Last time we checked in with UK developer Free Radical Design, the company was in bad shape as they went into "administration" (the UK term for bankruptcy). Now the word is that things have gotten worse with 140 team member now officially laid off, leaving only 40 team members still working at Free Radical.

1Up.com reports that Free Radical still has two secret projects in the works and that the company is now up for sale with a member of the company's administration team saying they have had "strong interest" from unnamed parties in purchasing the developer. As we reported before, Free Radical reportedly lost the rights to develop a new Star Wars: Battlefront game for publisher LucasArts.

It's not turning out to be a good holiday season for many in the game industry. Today is no exception. Gamesindustry.biz reported earlier this morning that the UK based game studio Free Radical Design closed its doors unexpectedly today.

The report, which cited unnamed sources, stated that Free Radical employees, which number 185 team members, came to work today to find the doors locked with instructions to meet at a local hotel for a final company meeting. However, a report on the UK based Nottingham.co.uk reports that the developer has gone into "administration" (the UK term for bankruptcy). Most employees have been told to stay home while the company looks over its financial position. Free Radical hopes to have some kind of announcement before Christmas or soon afterward about the status of the company.

While Free Radical mostly worked on console games they did release a PC port of their 2004 action-adventure game Second Sight for publisher Codemasters in 2004. Long time rumors have named Free Radical as the developer of Star Wars Battlefront III for LucasArts. The Gamesindustry.biz article claims that game has now moved over to another UK-based studio, Rebellion.