Free Radical is dead, its doors are shut for good

Multiple sources over the entirety of the internet are confirming that Free Radical Design, who were formed after many of the GoldenEye team left Rare in 1999, have closed their doors, and are now effectively dead. It is said the news came as a shock to many of the staff from company, which totalled over 200, as they arrived to work today only to find the doors locked, with a note taped on bearing instructions to meet at a nearby hotel lobby for what would be a final company meeting.

Dave Doak and Steve Ellis, who were Free Radical’s co-founders, have already revealed they will be starting a new company called Pumpkin Beach – although only a handful of Free Radical employees will be making the move with them. The other 180+ will be facing a rather horrible Christmas period without a pay check.

TimeSplitters 4, which was set to be a spoof on many other big name FPS games, was the next big game set to come out of Free Radical’s doors, but it is now in limbo, and it is unknown if work will continue at Pumpkin Beach. The game was still publisherless at the time of the company’s demise, even though almost two years of work was put into it.

Free Radical’s last game was the Ubisoft published Haze, which was not the best swan song for a developer to go out on.