If you were a fan of Rare’s Nintendo 64 shooters you didn’t have many options as the genre evolved during the GameCube era. One little franchise, however, kept the dream alive – TimeSplitters. Developed by Free Radical, a studio put together by former Rare employee David Doak, if featured similar mechanics and UI but with its own beloved takes on multiplayer. It was also one of the first franchises to include in-built level editors.
The franchise has languished ever since Free Radical was absorbed into Crytek, at least until now. Crytek has sold the IP to Koch Media (which is making a habit of restoring old franchises lately) and it sounds like a brand new product is in the works. Here’s a quote from studio boss Klemens Kundratitz via Eurogamer:
“We are hugely excited to have acquired TimeSplitters. The original games gave fans a massive content offer and provided a pure and genuinely fun arcade shooter experience.
We have many fans of the TimeSplitters series among our own staff who are passionate about creating a product that will thrill today’s gaming audience.”
We’ll just have to wait and see if any TimeSplitters heads to Switch, but given the franchise’s history with Nintendo it seems like an obvious choice. We’ll be sure to keep you up to date on developments!
Written by Tom Brown
Whether it’s an exciting new entry in a series long established or a weird experiment meant only for the dedicated, Tom is eager to report on it. Rest assured, if Nintendo ever announces Elite Beat Agents 2, he’ll be there.
