Remember Haze? You'll be forgiven if you can't recall the critically-panned PS3-exclusive shooter from 2008. It was the last game to come from Free Radical Design, before being transformed into Crytek UK.

Haze's failure ultimately hurt the prospects of a long-requested fan project: TimeSplitters 4. Free Radical had successfully launched three games in the series, but publishers couldn't help but be concerned after the game's disastrous release.

Read more: Game would be too difficult to market, as well »

Crysis 3 will be developer Crytek's final retail boxed product. Why? Because the company is becoming entirely focused on free-to-play games.

Warface is the developer's next major FPS title, and it will be free-to-play. However, CEO Cevat Yerli has since noted the possibility of a new TimeSplitters game as a free-to-play title, too. "I love TimeSplitters, I'm a huge TimeSplitters fan particularly of the multiplayer part. I love the idea, I love the brand, I love everything – but the publishers don't. That's reality," Yerli said.

Read more: 'I love the brand... but the publishers don't.' »

It has been seven years since the last TimeSplitters game, and in that time, developer Free Radical Entertainment was rescued from the brink of destruction by Crytek, and was reborn as Crytek UK. Several reports of a TimeSplitters 4 have surfaced since then, with the latest rumor from OXM sources having the game up and running, but Crytek UK has humorously responded with what could be viewed as a wink and a nudge.

Read more: It's about time, get it? »

Crytek UK, formerly Free Radical Design, is reportedly shopping around the idea of a new TimeSplitters title to various publishers, reports Eurogamer.

"We're talking to publishers at the moment," managing director Karl Hilton told Eurogamer. "There hasn't been a TimeSplitters game for quite a while. Obviously TimeSplitters is a FPS with a strong multiplayer element. The question is, is that the way to go with another one, or should it go down a different route, or should we be developing a new IP altogether?" Read more »

Author Richard Morgan, best known for his cyberpunk sci-fi novel Altered Carbon, revealed on his blog that he's been working with Electronic Arts as a consultant on three upcoming games (via A Dribble of Ink). He explains that the relationship started with an email from John Miles at EA about a year ago. A meeting with Miles and fellow EA employees Jeff Gamon and Colin Robinson resulted in an offer to write the script for a project already underway and to consult on future games. Part of the deal included heading off to Berlin the next week and since it seems he accepted we can assume that was his next stop.

While Morgan does not disclose what projects he might be on the names and locations offer plenty of clues. Miles, who initially reached out to him, recently has been working with the EA Partners group which includes developers Crytek and Starbreeze. The quick trip to Berlin put him only a short train ride away from Crytek's headquarters in Frankfurt. Morgan's gritty style would definitely fit well with the Crysis franchise. But hold on, before we forget, Crytek also bought developer Free Radical earlier this year, including the rights to the TimeSplitters IP, and kept the studio in the UK running. That sounds like two perfect fits already. Read more »

As developer Free Radical has fired around 75% of its staff--that's about 140 employees--the chances of ex-employees leaking unreleased media is roughly 100%.

Case in point, these character models from TimeSplitters 4 via ex-artist Richard Smith, the same fellow that leaked those images from Star Wars Battlefront 3. Read more »

After declaring bankruptcy last week, Haze and TimeSplitters series developer Free Radical Design has now laid off "around 140" of its 185 employees. The studio's staff had been paid through the end of December, which is when the cuts will take effect.

"We're still trading on with the remaining 40 or so employees, have advertised the business for sale and have received some strong interest," ReSolve representative Cameron Gunn told 1UP. ReSolve had been tasked with assessing Free Radical's "financial position" and helping the developer weather its troubled times. Read more »

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. Read more »

Over on its official website, developer Free Radical has released the first pieces of concept art from the next entry in its whimsical first-person shooter series TimeSplitters.

"It's funny, it's frantic and it'll do things you've never seen before! No, not naked girls, even better than that!," the studio teased. "This game will take the first person shooter to gaming nirvana. Save the world or die laughing, Timesplitters 4 is coming to getcha!" Read more »