type subsidiary of crytek industry computer and video games interactive entertainment successor dambuster studios founded 1999 defunct 30 july 2014 1 headquarters nottingham england united kingdom key people david doak steve ellis karl hilton graeme norgate products timesplitters 2000 5 parent crytek 2 website www.frd.co.uk free radical design was a british video game developer based in nottingham england united kingdom probably best known for the timesplitters series and second sight . 3 after going into financial administration it was announced on 4 february 2009 that the studio had been acquired by german video game developer crytek and would be renamed crytek uk . 4 crytek had a good relationship with the city of nottingham due in part to its sponsorship of the gamecity festival and its recruitment drives with nottingham trent university . 5 in 2014 the studio was shut down and the majority of the staff transferred to the newly formed dambuster studios . 6 contents 1 history 1.1 2014 financial difficulties and layoffs 2 games developed 2.1 free radical design 2.2 crytek uk 3 cancelled games 4 references 5 external links history edit the company s original logo 1998 2006 initially most of free radical design s employees previously worked for the game developer rare . while at rare they david doak steve ellis karl hilton graeme norgate and lee ray worked on the nintendo 64 first person shooters goldeneye 007 and perfect dark . from late 1998 to early 1999 this team left rare to form free radical design which was established in april 1999 their first release being timesplitters for the playstation 2 in 2000 . it was known for its very fast paced gameplay and its particular emphasis on multiplayer rather than story . 3 timesplitters attracted attention at the time because of the former rare employees work on the critically acclaimed goldeneye 007 . its sequel timesplitters 2 became the highest ranked first person shooter on the playstation 2 . 7 free radical design was working on star wars battlefront iii from 2006 to 2008 but it became cancelled when it was 99 percent complete . 8 the cancellation of this title contributed to free radical design going into bankruptcy . 9 on 18 december 2008 it was reported that the studio had shut down 10 though it was later confirmed that the company had gone bankrupt 11 leaving 40 of the original 185 staff still employed . 12 on 3 february 2009 haze scriptwriter rob yescombe announced that free radical design had been purchased by german games developer crytek 13 which was then confirmed by crytek themselves the following day . 4 in 2010 the company moved from sandiacre to brand new offices in the new central nottingham southreef development . the 50 million investment will allow crytek uk to grow over the next few months . 5 14 2014 financial difficulties and layoffs edit in june 2014 reports surfaced that crytek had missed wage payments and withheld bonuses for the company s employees and that as a result a number of employees had filed grievances and refused to report to work and at least 30 employees had left the company since 2011 alone due to a decreasing morale at the studio . after denying that there were issues crytek later admitted on 25 july 2014 that the company was in a transitional phase as it secured capital for future projects with a particular emphasis on online gaming . 15 16 on 30 july 2014 crytek announced that due to an internal restructuring it would sell the intellectual property of homefront a game of which the studio was currently in development of a sequel homefront the revolution to koch media parent company of video game publisher deep silver and lay off much of the company s staff . crytek left it unclear whether the company had been shut down entirely however all staff were transferred to the new dambuster studios being established in nottingham in accordance with british law 17 and will continue to work on homefront the revolution . 6 18 19 games developed edit free radical design edit year game publisher genre platform s gc pc ps2 ps3 xbox 2000 timesplitters eidos interactive first person shooter no no yes no no 2002 timesplitters 2 eidos interactive first person shooter yes no yes no yes 2004 second sight codemasters action adventure stealth yes yes yes no yes 2005 timesplitters future perfect electronic arts first person shooter yes no yes no yes 2008 haze ubisoft first person shooter no no no yes no crytek uk edit year game genre notes platform s pc ps3 x360 2011 crysis 2 first person shooter development of the multiplayer only yes yes yes 2013 crysis 3 first person shooter development of the multiplayer only yes yes yes 2014 warface first person shooter development of the xbox 360 version only no no yes cancelled games edit star wars battlefront iii references edit sarkar samit 30 july 2014 . homefront the revolution devs to move to deep silver as crytek scales back two studios . polygon . vox media . retrieved 30 july 2014 . mcwhertor michael . crytek buys free radical . kotaku . a b hwang kaiser june 2007 free radical the face that launched a thousand games psm pp. 18 19 a b crytek.com a b gaming firm crytek to be first tenant at nottingham s southreef a b deep silver buys homefront from crytek moves homefront the revolution to new studio . polygon . retrieved 30 july 2014 . reviews and news articles gamerankings . gamerankings.com . battlefront 3 was 99 percent done when canceled . gamespot . free radical vs. the monsters . eurogamer.net . 4 may 2012 . graft kris 18 december 2008 . source free radical locked up . edge online.com . edge . retrieved 18 december 2008 . 185 jobs at risk at computer games company . this is nottingham . robert purchese . admin confirms free radical demise . eurogamer . emma boyes . crytek purchases free radical says company scriptwriter . 1up . contact . crytek.com . update staff at homefront developer crytek uk not reporting to work . game informer . retrieved 30 july 2014 . report 30 staff have left crytek uk since 2011 morale is low . gamespot . retrieved 30 july 2014 . deep silver buys homefront uk staff to transfer to new dambuster studio crytek usa scaled back . gameinformer . retrieved 30 july 2014 . crytek lays off staff after selling homefront ; crytek uk may be shut down . gamespot . retrieved 30 july 2014 . crytek no longer developing homefront sells rights to publisher deep silver . gamespot . retrieved 30 july 2014 . external links edit official free radical design website at the wayback machine archived february 23 2008 official crytek uk website at the wayback machine archived june 29 2014 v t e crytek games crysis series crysis warhead crysis 2 crysis 3 other games far cry knights of honor worldshift timesplitters 4 warface ryse son of rome hunt horrors of the gilded age arena of fate subsidiaries crytek black sea free radical design crytek usa people cevat yerli david doak graeme norgate related cryengine list of games dunia engine dambuster studios v t e free radical design timesplitters series timesplitters timesplitters 2 timesplitters future perfect timesplitters 4 other games second sight haze crysis 2 multiplayer crysis 3 multiplayer warface xbox 360 version related crytek retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title free radical design & oldid 742573207 categories companies based in nottinghamcrytekdefunct companies of englanddefunct video game companiesfree radical designvideo game companies established in 1999video game companies disestablished in 2014video game companies of the united kingdomvideo game development companieshidden categories engvarb from september 2013use dmy dates from september 2013articles with wayback machine links navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store 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