TimeSplitters - What Happened?
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- čas přidán 22. 12. 2023
- ADDENDUM: It was brought to my attention that the TimeSplitters Rewind discord is active, and that development is still ongoing. During the production of this video, I decided to prioritize my time to attempt to reach out to as many former Free Radical staffers who were recently let go as I could (although unfortunately the only one who got back back to me didn't feel comfortable sharing any details regarding the project) but I should have made more effort to speak to someone on the TSR team as well. Like I said in the video, it'll be exciting when it's finished, as the wider fanbase of the franchise could use it now more than ever. Best of luck to the team, and I apologize to any members or supporters of TSR for the lack of details in this area. I'll be lightly trimming some of the video to better reflect this new information.
The best way to stay informed on their progress is through their Discord: / discord
If you'd like to join the TSR Discord to stay informed: czcams.com/users/redirect?even...
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For tons more additional info about everything Free Radical Design - freeradical.fandom.com/wiki/M...
Edited By: The Cartoon Gamer / gamingxperience and SoberDwarf / soberdwarf
SkeleMatt art by: Dan Walker / donwoka
Intro By: 2Snacks / 2manysnacks and Little V Mills / littlevmills
WRITTEN SOURCES:
Interview with David Doak via RetroGamer Magazine Issue 218: www.gamesradar.com/retrogamer/ and via GamesRadar: www.gamesradar.com/the-histor...
Former FRD employees share concept art via Eurogamer: www.eurogamer.net/former-free...
Over 6000 jobs lost in video game industry in 2023 via GamesIndustry.biz: www.gamesindustry.biz/over-60...
Crytek Talking to Pubs about bringing back TS via Eurogamer: www.eurogamer.net/timesplitte...
TimeSplitters bought by Koch Media via IGN: www.ign.com/articles/2018/08/...
TS might come back as Free to Play via The Escapist: www.escapistmagazine.com/f2p-...
Crytek says there's not enough interest in TimeSplitters via The Escapist: www.escapistmagazine.com/cryt...
TimeSplitters Revival coming via TechRadar: www.techradar.com/news/timesp...
Free Radical reforming, bringing back TS via GameInformer: www.gameinformer.com/2021/05/...
Free Radical Closing down via PC Gamer: www.pcgamer.com/timesplitters...
TimeSplitters 2 4K version found in HomeFront: www.polygon.com/22375774/time...
Crytek UK behind on getting payments via MCVUK: mcvuk.com/business-news/publi...
VIDEO SOURCES:
Timesplitters rewind official: • TimeSplitters Rewind U...
Clonetrooper163: • Star Wars Battlefront ...
InternstellarYeti: • I tried Warface on the...
RetroStu: • Timesplitters Future P...
Joker Alex 21: • TimeSplitters Story: C...
MUSIC:
(all tracks from TS 1-3)
TimeSplitters Front End
Nightclub
Site
Chicago
Return to Planet X Part 1
TimeSplitters Future Perfect Menu
Spaceport
The Mall
Cortez Can't Jump
Aztec
Haunted Mansion
Egyptian Tile Set
Circus Big Top
Siberia
Disco A Go Go
#mattmcmuscles #timesplitters #whathappened - Hry
ADDENDUM: It was brought to my attention that the TimeSplitters Rewind discord is active, and that development is still ongoing. During the production of this video, I decided to prioritize my time to attempt to reach out to as many former Free Radical staffers who were recently let go as I could (although unfortunately the only one who got back back to me didn't feel comfortable sharing any details regarding the project) but I should have made more effort to speak to someone on the TSR team as well. Like I said in the video, it'll be exciting when it's finished, as the wider fanbase of the franchise could use it now more than ever. Best of luck to the team, and I apologize to any members or supporters of TSR for the lack of details in this area. I'll be lightly trimming some of the video to better reflect this new information.
The best way to stay informed on their progress is through their Discord: discord.com/invite/nyUPVFwF84
Also, for tons more additional info about everything Free Radical Design, check out: freeradical.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page
This is the one franchise that I want to see a comeback.
Rayman is the biggest one for me.
They recently closed down the studio that was making a new one
It makes no sense not to. It’s super super easy for them to monetise the game as well, given that they can literally add ANY character from history or fiction. Its fun cartoony style would appeal to kids especially if they can get this onto Switch and Mobile platforms with Xplay!
Free Radical Design was recently closed
They would have woked the shit out of it.
I feel tremendously bad for Ellis and Doak who came back to work on the new game. It's very rare for the original talent to come back for a project like that, I really can't imagine that they would be willing to try again in the modern industry after such treatment.
Happens way too often. Guys like them are hardy though. They do the work for the love of the art and I believe they'd form a studio again. But I won't disagree with you that the game "industry" has become a hellscape. Just seeing all the once greatest IP's being pissed away due to too many executives messing with the creative process is rage inducing.
This series can't catch a break, can it? It's a shame that we're likely never gonna see it again.
I remember getting stoked in high school bc I saw an IGN listing for an untitled timesplitters game that never came out for Ps3/X360 I think... so many good memories even though I discovered the series way after it was gone.
@@KUPSMusicthey don’t post on CZcams often but I’m pretty sure that their discord is still active
@@KUPSMusic i will when it stops being vaporware
Haha, see you in a couple years.
Timesplitters rewind was mentioned several times in this very video. It's been a ghost for over a decade. It's never coming out and if it did, it would just get C&Ded by Koch.
I knew Matt would make a "What Happened?" video on TimeSpliters almost immediately after Free Radical Design got shutdown by Embracer. Makes sense because Matt followed Free Radical pretty closely every since their announcement of a new TimeSpliters. You work fast, Matt! Keep it up!
The Cardi B reference made me do a spit take🤣👍
Can't wait for the inevitable embracer group wha happun 😅🤣
I'm more curious if Matt is in touch with the Devs on the then "Current" TimeSplitters project that got binned, cause the devs could continue the project in all but the TimeSplitters name, if they play their cards right they could turn this Spiritual Successor into a profitable Business Venture, cause again Matt could throw the idea at the devs on such a project and even team up with a good Publisher that would support them all the way, maybe Humble Bundle or something.
TimeSplitters has such a staying power, because it is one of the last remnants of First Person Shooters that valued fun above all, and seeing it thrown under the bus like this is beyond depressing.
Knowing that multiplayer could see a duck walking around with a rocket, a cowboy with a AK-47 or even modern riot cop using a hand grenade gun, the utter novelty of various oddball combos like that alone never gets old.
No kidding eh? Like it wouldn't kill Embracer Group to just do a rerelease of the three TimeSplitters games, cause there's enough people out there that would buy it, me included especially if it's priced fairly. Like if Sony brought back their PS2 classics program easily TimeSplitters would one that would highly benefit from that program and since it's one of many games the company hasn't bothered ported despite the demand for it, it's easy money.
@@bobafett4265I mean Homefront is only famous because you can play Time splitters 2 on it. How hard it is to do full PC port?
Exactly mate@@Noperare , if they can do it on Homefront the Revolution they can do a quick port on Modern Systems, also I played the first Homefront and I liked it, the campaign is too short but is a good time, I haven't played the second game, yet.
@@NoperareI’ve had home front revolution for years I didn’t know I’m gonna have to take a second look
"Embracer Group" sounds like a name of a generically evil corporation in a cheesy dystopian movie. Actually heartbroken from the whole story, it's obscenely frustrating that an industry is allowed to act so soullessly. Thanks as always for the content.
Disgracer group lol
The big reveal in the third act is that Ebracer Corp is actually run be a Beholder from D&D, and the name of the corporation is ultimately just from a slight mistranslation of the name of the monster.
Embraced Group are one of many things that’s wrong with modern gaming.
The protagonist sabotaged their big business deal to foil their evil plot.
Tom Clarke Hill was so happy and eager to be Cortez again too... My favorite shooter series of all time, and it ends like this... Again.
My brother and I owned a copy of TS2 for the GameCube. It was without a doubt the most played game on our GameCube besides Smash Bros. We loved the game and tried to complete every challenge the game had and we played the multiplayer to death. So many memories of that game summed up our teenage years. If anything, I'm just grateful it existed in the first place.
My brothers and I had a very similar experience as you and your brother. Melee and TS2 was our most played too
Exactly the same for me too ! Haha
Same here and Bloody Roar and Metal Arms
@@StanDaMan4487 ooooo primal fury was played a lot too. My boy Yugo the wolf 🐺
Same
I love this franchise so much. It has so much character and soul.
I'll never stop being upset about what happened with Embracer. I've been wanting more Timesplitters for years and I finally thought it was going to happen...
Timesplitters 2 and Future Perfect are really great games. They should have gotten much more attention and recognition!
Here's hoping that a studio like Nightdive can scoop up the IP and at least put out a modern port that isn't trapped inside a bad game
Timesplitters 2 and Future Perfect are available digitally via Xbox back compat right now, they play pretty well. Hopefully they can come to other platforms too.
Nightdive hardly touch games from the 2000s unfortunately. Blind Squirrel or Virtuous seem like they would be more suited to the task
If they dropped a Timesplitters Collection I'd buy it in a heartbeat. TS2 is still one of my favorite games and the amount of hours my cousin and I invested will never be forgotten
They have part 2 and future perfect on Xbox for download
I am so pissed at Embracer. They killed Timesplitters 4.
Top 5 FPS series hands-down. Everybody loves the 2nd and 3rd game, but I think the 1st one still holds up really well too.
The other week, I was walking past Free Radical Design's office. I noticed the sign on the door was removed, and the office looked empty. I had thought they had just moved, but no, they are gone once again.
Embracer Group happened, now every damn studio they acquired is shutting down, it speaks to a bigger problem with acquisitions in general
That there is why you should never buy too many franchises at once
And be careful with who you choose
It doesnt. Embracer has nothing to do with how other acquisitions work. Its just a badly managed company. What shows is how bad regulators are at their job, once again. They spent almost 2 years for a fuckin COD/Cloud deal no one cared about, while this other shitty company kept taking up companies without any consequence.
Timesplitters as a franchise has the some of the best music out there in terms of video game soundtracks
From the first time I played TS to now, there is no month where i don't dive in a playlist of those bangers. All praises to Graeme Norgate !
Time splitters 1 and 2 defined my teenage years. Brilliant games that made the centre of many sleep overs
Being a massive fan of the series, but not even knowing free radical reformed, just to hear its dead again is heartbreaking. So many good memories with this series. Thank you for creating this video.
Man it’s been a while since we’ve had a tragic WhatHappened episode but honestly the Time Splitter development story and the entire Embracer Group shitshow might just be the most unfair and tragic story from this series.
I hope Agent 64: Spies Never Die is a success that Embracer Group will regret. It's truly sad to see how Embracer Group has turned into a terrible company recently.
Can't wait for the "Embracer - What Happened" episode, hopefully in the near future ... Happy Holidays, Matt :)
My gosh I can hear that teleport animation. And I can definitely hear that lion dude screaming still to this day. I hope this gets a comeback one day.
Time splitters was so ridiculously full of content. I think about it any time nickel and dime DLC comes up.
Love your use of the TimeSplitters soundtrack in this video. Using the Chicago theme just as you're telling about Free Radical going behind Eidos' back really made the story that much better.
If there's anything I've learned regarding Embracer Group being covered on this show, it's that they have death sentences in their pocket whenever things don't go their way and will hand them out like candy just to stay afloat.
I remember getting sucked into doing those bot deathmatches for TS2 on Gamecube and just having an absolute blast! Gonna have to revisit the game someday soon in honor of this video.
I put more hours into TimeSplitters 2 than any other game in my life, with TimeSplitters 3 probably being a distant 2nd. You never felt cheated when you got killed, you respawned into the action almost immediately, and you couldn't get through a match without laughing at least once. It was always fun, win or lose. If some company put out an HD release with online play, maybe even mapmaker levels with fewer memory restrictions, I'd throw money at it, no question.
This....this was the episode I was dreading to see pop up in my feed. Losing Free Radical just hurts man.
It should be noted Timesplitters Rewind is still being worked on and can be kept up with from their Discord server. Since Rewind is entirely fan made the people working on it can only do so during free time and when they have the energy to do so. Since they have work, family, future employment, etc to focus on before it and those obviously come first.
Rewind definitely had major hurdles in the past though. From what I recall Crytek forced them to use the Cryengine for it as part of the deal of making a free fan game. I believe they originally tried making it in Unreal then had to move to Cryengine when Crytek told them to. Which caused a lot of work to be thrown out. After the buyout of the Timesplitters franchise again, by another corpo, they were eventually able to go back to Unreal engine to work with but that meant again restarting their work. Per their own words though the game is further along in development then ever before.
They do have a section on their Discord server where people can try and apply to assist with the project but you need to show previous work in the field and they need certain types of work than others.
And as terrible as it is for Free Radical being shut down by Embracer their closure doesn't harm the project of Rewind at all. Not unless the owner of the Timesplitters IP tells them they can no longer work on the project which hasn't happened yet (and hopefully doesn't).
I wouldn't hold your breath on TS Rewind. There's less than 10 people working on it in their spare time. I've been keeping up to date on it for like 6 years and last I checked they hadn't even finished the first game yet. Plus with all these acquisition changes even if they did release it, it'd be CCd in a hot minute.
Timesplitters Rewind is never going to happen.
@@bobbyevans8136 Not sure where you heard that; but i call bullshit on that Lol, this was an official comment by one of the testers of rewind *"we've mentioned several times that the initial release version of TSR (with TS1) is fairly close to finished now. we don't know how long it will take until it can be released since the whole team consists of volunteers, but yes, it is very much playable."*
so progress may be a little on the slow side, but they're still working, and they're working hard, You should be staying positive and supportive; bobbyevans8136, even if you're being a "realistic pessimistic" be glad that something even TimeSplitters related IS being worked on, AND shown, to many fans like to fall apart even before something is out the door, and that's bullshit, Smarten up.
Yes it is@@halolasomaster3900
I remember when I first played TimeSplitters future perfect, and it blew my mind with just how many things that you could do in the game and the amount of playable characters. I remember finally when I saw at the game store they had time splitters too and since future perfect didn't have a number in the title I assumed it was the first one and then I realized future perfect was actually the 3rd. Ever since then I've been eagerly awaiting a new one. It's by far my favorite multiplayer game on GameCube. The nostalgia is absolutely overwhelming and it's soooooo sad how things have played out for the franchise.
I made a retrospective on this series a few years ago. Great games. What’s sad though is that right when the series was starting too find its identity, we never got another game. Cortez was the best badass goofball ever!
Love how this game exists because when mom said no, they asked dad instead. And he said yes.
My nickname alone is a testament of how much I love the FPS games made by Mr.Doak and I am so sad that we didn't get another entry in the awesome Time Splitters franchise...the latest news only make it worse...
If anyone of the original TS team reads this: You guys are awesome and your games won't be forgotten!
Now I need to play TS2 again and shoot me sum monkeys...
You wanna know how much this series means to me? I’ve only played Future Perfect when I was 11 and loved the fuckle out of it. It only took one game for me to have permanent memories and fondness for this series. I didn’t even know it had 3 games in the series until this video. Hell, I didn’t even know what Timespliters 1 looked like until this video.
It’s a damn shame Embracer Group embraced their stupidity instead of embracing empathy.
Free Radical would've thrived in today's indie market, I think. You can easily self publish on a platform like Steam these days.
I can just about remember everything in Timesplitters 2 and FP cause thats how much me and my family played it. Unforgettable memories and a true treasure of a game. My goal was always 100% these games and unlock all characters, a much more fun challenge instead of micro transactions
Stuff like this make it really hard to not feel like the AAA industry is cooked
Unless you’re Nintendo tbat is, AAA games are dead outside of Nintendo because Nintendo’s never foolishly spent $100 million on a Mario and Zelda game and they’ve outsold their competitors 3 - 1.
I think TS2 and TS:FP are objectively perfect games, so much content and so much love poured into them. Probably my favorite console FPS games next to Bungie's Halo
From BF3 to everything that’s happened with Timesplitters since, no dev has suffered as needlessly as Free Radical.
Makes me wonder if their original studio was built on an ancient Indian burial ground or something.
Im so glad your channel exists! You've answered so many questions, I had (as well as forgot) about games in the industry.
TS2 is 1 of my favourite video games of all time (Even though I do love the series as a whole). The absolute insanity of being so close so many times & having the rug pulled out from under us every time is incredibly heart breaking. I can only dream of what a TS4 would've looked like at this point 😢😢😢
So many good memories of this series, I would love to find myself spending money on controllers and pizza again for this game
I just went through the link for all the TimeSplitters 4 artwork. There were almost 1000 images. I felt so many things scrolling through that.
It is beyond a shame we won’t see that put into a new release
I knew this would eventually end up on What Happened. I remember *SO* many people up in arms in regards to... well, what happened to the series. Actually, last week, I actually saw a news article about what happened to this series, and how people were bummed out by the idea that we'll likely never see a sequel to this series.
"Unbelievably fair" is putting it mildly. This series is one I want to see come back, and one that I think NEEDS to come back.
Actually, on second thought, scratch "need."
It *DESERVES* to come back.
The artwork for the unfinished TimeSplitters 4 is so depressing because so much of it looks amazing 😢
The soundtrack for TS2 is gold.
Studios getting shut down, people losing jobs, ever increasing dev costs, $70 games, likely to only get higher in the future...I feel like the game industry long term is going to be in trouble...that shit is unsustainable to me long term
This whole video was heartbreaking, been a TS fan ever since I played the second one on my gamecube back in the day. Thank you Matt for shedding some light on 'What Happened' here.
Eidos sure has a lot to say about multiplayer elements. I'm sure that until then they had a quite stellar catalog of multiplayer releases
this franchise deserved so much better
I really wanna see this game make a comeback one day 🙏, wasn't there a article years ago mentioning a "Remake" or a "Re-Release" for this series?
I genuinely feel like Timesplitters is the true sequel to Goldeneye and Perfect Dark.
It took all the components that made those games great and ran full speed with them into the horizon.
My god do I miss it.
Dude just for the intro alone I'm liking the video! Awesome work you do and keep it going. Love your vids man
The most depressing What Happened episode that I sat through.
I absolutely loved time splitters 2 and 3 the graphics the gameplay the humor. It was just a really fun experience I didn’t want to end. It sucks when things like this happen especially around holiday time I feel for all those people and I’m glad development is still going on. I wish them all success
Yeah, this really hurt, but thank you for the video as always Matt, you always bring it 😁❣
Holy shit, Embracer really are shitting on everything in the most incompetent fashion.
It's really up to us, the fans, to make our own mods, fangames, spiritual successors to this franchise, because if Embracer won't, who else will?
The closest one I could find is Timeshifters, though there's also Goldeneye: Source, Perfect Dark: Source, Agent 64, Operation Pinkeye, Dark Data, The Spy who Shot Me and TimeWarp, among others I missed.
Great video about a series of heartbreaking events. Nice job.
I wish this series returns one day. So many hours were spent among my friends as we played story in co-op and then deathmatch in TimeSplitters 2 and TS: Future Perfect. :)
TimeSplitters 2 was my first original Xbox game when I was a kid and it was one of the best games I'd ever played. I still would play it any day.
Great video also the most worrying thing is that Embracer Group has Crystal Dynamics so I wouldn't be suprised if Crystal Dynamics goes through some shit
Damn great detective work bro, thanks for the work and cheers to the new years and happy holidays alike
It'd be interesting to see you covering No One Lives Forever on What Happened
I grew up with Timesplitters and every time I had hope for the series to return it is always brought with sad news. The dream is over.
I'd love to see an episode of What Happaned about Lord of the Rings: The third Age. Lately, I looked into the code and files from the game and there are a lot of unused skills, enemies and also there is equipment in the game you can only aquire via hacking. People always used to say it was because time restraints. I wouldn't be surprised if this is really the case, since it's an EA title, but maybe there are other factors, too. The game also feels rushed in the second half and it's also underwhelming that after Pellenor, you instantly fight Sauron, instead of fighting at the Black Gate, which Aragorn said, sooo ... yeah.
I'd definitely recommend that one for you, but information is scarce on this one. At least from my searches.
Happy Holidays Matt!
My sister and I played the TimeSplitters games to death growing up, and I still consider it the best example of the FPS genre I've played - fun, creative, and infinitely replayable. This was depressing to watch. Thanks for your hard work researching everything, even if you made me sad!
Thank you I been asking for this 🙏🏾
Another banger video Matt! If you wanna keep with the time travel theme for a bit, you should totally look into Darkest of Days and maybe TimeShift. I dunno what it is about time travel related games and them having rocky developments, but those two were ones that were decent (at least as far as my spotty memory goes of the final products.) Whatever comes next, hope you have a Happy New Year!
Future Perfect was my favorite. I remember spending HOURS on the map maker alone.
Thank you for your video. It was shared at the TS online discord. :)
Man messing around with map maker was such a blast! Takes me back!
Free Radical is just one of many casualties of the death of mid-shelf games. Games like Fracture, Time Splitters, Timeshift, Th3 Plan, The Saboteur, Red Faction, Matt Hazard, Driver San Francisco, Homefront, Singularity, etc. etc. are not allowed to simply exist, be fun, and end any more. Publishers don't entertain anything that can't spawn a decade of franchise sequels or bilk players for microtransactions ad nauseam.
My favorite childhood game series, thank you for this.
One of the greater tragedies in gaming.
If I ever get a divorce I'm just going to jump out with papers in hand and say "It's Time to Split". I'll then wait in awkward silence as reality sinks in.
This was such a fun video game franchise to play growing up that it shocks me that, in a world full of industries trying to capitalize on nostalgia, has yet to bring this series back
This is a PHENOMENAL video! As a major TS fan, thank you for breaking this down in such a fantastic way! It's so frustrating to see this series suffer basically because of publishers. A series this good deserves better.
Check out TimeSplitters Resurgence Project! Future perfect mod and mini series!
I paused the video after the part where they were reformed, to breathe a sigh of relief because i absolutely love TS2 (and Second Sight)
The rest of the video hit me like a ton of bricks, truly sucks how it all ended 😮💨 excellent work Matt
Dude, the first two TS games were pure non-stop fun! I hope something good and more comes for everyone involved with the series.
Have such fond memories of playing 2 and future perfect with my brother. Really a golden era of couchplay
Great video, and its nice that it got so many views so quick, because TS4 definitely should've happened and its been shown the door more times than any other game I can think of.
One of my favorite franchise of video games
Right in my feels 😭
I was absolutely shocked when I heard that this company was the one that worked on Star Wars Battlefront III. That game is a legend to me and my friends. Absolutely astounding that it was canned so close to the finish line.
Please keep getting the truth out about embracer and all the studios and employees paying for their stupidity and greed. I feel like they literally wanted to overthrow EA for worst company
I'm so glad you made this video.
In my dorm at college we lived and breathed Future Perfect. That game will always have a special place in my heart, so many good memories with my buddies. Best part is we all moved to the same city and still hang out all the time nearly 20 years later. Timesplitters was a huge part of what helped build the bond between us. So I owe Free Radical a lot in many ways hahaha
Timesplitters 2 scratched my Goldeneye/Perfect Dark itch when the other attempts to continue those IPs let me down. This team deserved better than what Embracer Group did to them 😢
Finally, the Timesplitters video I’ve been waiting almost 20 years for
Audible gasp of excitement when I saw the thumbnail!! I love Wha Happun
Timesplitters 2 is one of my favorite all time games and im glad i still have it
Great video, as always! Hopefully FRD staff will find new jobs soon and TS will come back at some point. The "ch" in "Koch" is pronounced like the "x" in México.
I love timesplitters to my very core and I don't want it to come back. It will be forever remembered as a great and I can still play it!
This episode made me sad. I think I need to call a friend of mine and see if I can convince him to Marathon the campaigns from TS 2 and 3
Timesplitters is such an underrated franchise. I have so many memories making maps, going through the story, and just loving the different characters. Ghost was always my favorite character in the franchise, Neo Tokyo was so good!
i still have fond memories of coming home with Timesplitters 2 i believe and a new console and playing it with a buddy for hours until i got motion sick. then sleeping for about 2 hours before having to go to school. good times good times.
Another great video Matt!
I would love to see you make a video about the Backyard Wrestling: Don't try this at home games!