TimeSplitters returns with a new game from the original developers

Well over a decade after the fourth game in the series was announced but never released, TimeSplitters is making a comeback. Deep Silver has revived Free Radical Design and members of the original team, including studio founders Steve Ellis and David Doak, have reunited to make the next game in the tongue-in-cheek series.

TimeSplitters was released in 2000 as a PlayStation 2 launch title. Two sequels followed over the next five years. Although the first-person shooters were critical darlings and beloved by fans, they didn’t quite reach high levels of commercial success. Crytek bought Free Radical in 2008 after the studio closed. A decade later, Deep Silver owner Koch Media scooped up the rights to TimeSplitters.

Official word first emerged about TimeSplitters 4 in 2007, but it hasn’t come to pass. In 2012, former Free Radical staffer Karl Hilton said the game was a hard sell to publishers, as “a game that is based around a diverse set of characters and environments” was deemed difficult to market.

After all that, there’s actually a TimeSplitters game on the horizon. It’s likely a few years away, though. Development will get underway in the coming months after Free Radical Design has staffed up.