The TimeSplitters series is coming back. Publisher Deep Silver announced that Free Radical Design, the team behind the original entries in the series, is “reforming.” It’s unknown if this will serve as a continuation of the series or a reboot, but was is clear is that it will be created by many of its original developers.
TimeSplitters is a sci-fi first-person shooter series that was popular in the early 2000s. A fourth installment was in the works around 2007, but the project was placed on hold after Free Radical was bought by Crytek.
This new version of Free Radical will be led by Steve Ellis and David Doak, who founded the original version of the studio in 1999 before forming into Crytek UK in 2008. The studio was then shuttered in 2014, and many of its employees were shifted to Dambuster Studios.
“You asked and we listened,” Deep Silver said in a recent tweet.
A new Deep Silver Studio is coming – Free Radical Design pic.twitter.com/N5qTTcZfsW
— Deep Silver (@deepsilver) May 20, 2021
“This is an exciting first step in the process,” the company said. Though it did mention that “development on a new game has not yet started,” but that it plans to update the community when there is more news to share. Given how long game development can take, it’s likely we’ll have to wait a while before playing the new TimeSplitters game.
Fans had been clamoring for a new TimeSplitters game for years, so this announcement is a welcome one. The last installment was TimeSplitters: Future Perfect which launched in 2005. The first entry, simply called TimeSplitters, came out for the PS2 in 2000 and was followed by TimeSplitters 2 in 2002.
Deep Silver parent company Koch Media houses many publishers and is known for reviving old franchises such as Destroy All Humans! and the recent SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom remake.