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[BennyBlanco]

The Embracer CEO needs to step down, this is getting out of hand.
Clean house at the top would be the correct approach

Not gonna help anything, they ran out of cash

 

[AJUMP23]

Icarus thou art foolish.


Took on too much and needed a deal to bail them out. Deal didn't happen and now a lot of people will suffer.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Shame that to be honest. Although they've been working on Timesplitters for fucking years haven't they?

 

[Rat Rage]

Motherfuckers! It was all fun and games to see Embracer doing their stupid stuff in the past (buying studios and IPs left and right without any real business plan - how can a company have so much money and be so dumb at the same time!), BUT now I'm really pissed.

Fuck them!

To anyone working at Free Radical Designs: PLEASE - for the love of god - just start a KICKSTARTER! Fuck Embracer, fuck everyone, just let the fans fund the (glorious) return of the Timesplitters IP!

 

[CamHostage]

Motherfuckers! It was all fun and games to see Embracer doing their stupid stuff in the past (buying studios and IPs left and right without any real business plan - how can a company have so much money and be so dumb at the same time!), BUT now I'm really pissed.

The thing is, it's everybody's business plan: get big fast. And it works for the mega-conglomerates (or worked until interest rates shifted,) that they just amass what looks like a Death Star of names so that money gravitates their way. An ambitious small fish like THQ/Embracer acting like a biggie by puffing up, that might work out if the money rolls in on time, but if it doesn't, the whole thing dries up.

 

[adamsapple]

Free Radical is dead, long live Free Radical.

 

[splattered]

That stinks, hopefully these devs find new work homes soon. Sucks to be let go so close to Christmas.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

It's amazing they lasted as long as they did. 24 years since leaving Rare and through quite a lot of changes. I'd say they had a good run, but they really didn't.

 

[BobLeeSwagger]

They made Haze and was pretty much a support studio since then. Can't blame em

 

[SaucyJack]

Oh fucking please, if the studio actually produced anything of value in the last 10 years they wouldnt be in that situation…Fuck me cry me a goddamn river, yes its tragic when people lose their jobs but they havent made a good game since Timesplitters 3, thats a long time to be on life support…SMDH

I think the narrative around Embracer gets a bit silly at times, they seem to be getting held up as some kind of malevolent force in the industry. But tbh I don't see them as the gaming industry's "big bad"

Of course it's sad for people that might lose their jobs but it's also a reality of life, across all industries. Especially true in the current economy. The gaming industry isn't some commune, that's immune from all of this, it's business and studios that don't deliver games that gamers want to support will not succeed.

As for Embracer they seem to have had a strategy to gobble up all sorts of assets, many of which were dead or dying, and grow rapidly and there was always likely to be some level of rationalisation following that, combining studios and locations, letting unproductive teams go, etc. but I'm sure the ip remains.

Embracer seem to be caught in a strategy that doesn't work in a downturn, with increased interest rates, etc, nevertheless the level of job losses at Embracer doesn't seem particularly out of line with the trend across the industry. Not saying it's a good thing but it's no more evil than anything else that's going on.

 

[Haint]

2 and a half years in development, they must have had nearly nothing (or something really crappy) to show for it.

 

[Pigenator]

Godammit. Playing Timesplitters is one of my fondest memories of playing FPS games, playing hundreds of hours local coop on my shitty gamecube.

 

[Woopah]

Timesplitters 4 was my dream game. And now I'll never get it.

 

[Porticus]

Microsoft should buy them.

 

[Killer8]

It was basically just a zombie studio anyway. Haze was a disaster. Crytek then bought them up and they worked on the Crysis 2 and 3 multiplayer, which were forgettable. Most of the staff then left for Dambusters Studios, who recently made Dead Island 2.

We're mourning a studio who hadn't been relevant since 2005 when they made TimeSplitters: Future Perfect and who already lost the majority of their talent to another developer.

 

[Bernkastel]

Microsoft should buy them.

Only Crystal Dynamics and Eidos

 

[Ronin_7]

Rip another studio, I'm worried it's probably not the last.

 

[SaucyJack]

When we hear Free Redical, it makes it sound like the whole original team is there. when in fact there are probably 90% of the staff are gone and the remaining are few pink and purple haired dudes that spend their time on twitter fighting normal people.

If the team had something to show, or even a remaster of the old games that are presentable and playable, I would assume Embracer would have release these online already at PSN/Xbox or even on PC under Epic launcher for Free ( if costs of releasing a complied build was an issue to Embracer and fearing it wont make any money to cover the cost of releasing it on a platform.

but truth remains, They showed nothing of promise for years now. so good riddance to be honest.

I would rather the studio to close rather than tarnish a game that is considered a classic.

This is the 3rd time that Free Radical has been closed.

Free Radical was acquired by Crytek after going bankrupt in 2008. It then became Crytek UK and was shut down in 2014 when Crytek were in deep financial trouble.

Embracer reformed it about 18 months ago bringing the original founders with a view to making Timesplitters.

Thanks to our fabulous gaming media we have no idea how that's been going, or indeed what's happening to the people involved. Has everyone been made redundant? Has anyone been restructured in to other group companies e.g. Dambusters who are in the same City. Has anyone even asked Embracer for comment?