TimeSplitters, Haze Dev. Free Radical Not Closed Yet, But Bankrupt

Update: Free Radical has not closed, but has instead gone into administration, which will allow the company to continue operating despite an inability to pay its debts.

"It's business as usual, although we have asked that almost all of the employees apart from a skeleton crew remain at home," Cameron Gunn, an employee of administration firm Resolve Partners, told local newspaper This Is Nottinham.

TimeSplitters 4 Concept Art

All of Free Radical's 185 employees have been paid through the end of December. The studio hopes to make an announcement regarding its fate later this month, following an analysis of its "financial position" by Resolve Partners.

Along with TimeSplitters 4, rumors suggest Free Radical was working on Star Wars: Battlefront III for LucasArts, with some claiming that the title has since been moved to Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron developer Rebellion.

Original Story: According to a report by GamesIndustry.biz and numerous other sources, UK developer Free Radical Design is closing its doors. The company behind the popular TimeSplitters series most recently released the critical and commercial failure Haze, a PlayStation 3-exclusive action game.

Above, Haze (PS3)

Though studio director Steve Ellis told GI.biz last month that "Nothing unusual is happening here" and "we certainly won't be laying off any staff today. Or, for that matter, any time in 2008," that is apparently what has happened.

According to today's story, staff still at the company were met by locked doors and instructions to go to a nearby hotel for a final company meeting.

Prior to the studio's closure, Free Radical was working on TimeSplitters 4.

Thanks to Shacker Granf for the link to This Is Nottingham's report.