The Austro-Swedish corporation THQ Nordic announced the acquisition from Crytek of the rights to the game portfolio of the Free Radical Design studio. Among other things, the Timesplitters series of shooters, as well as the action adventure Second Sight, became the property of THQ. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed.
The heyday of the popularity of Free Radical Design games occurred in the early 2000s. The fame of the studio was brought by a series of humorous action films Timesplitters, released on PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox consoles. From 2000 to 2005, 3 parts of the game were released.
In 2009, Crytek bought Free Radical Design and renamed it Crytek UK. The sale of the studio was preceded by the cancellation of the almost finished Star Wars Battlefront III project and the failed launch of the Haze action movie, which was published by Ubisoft.
In 2014, Crytek abolished Crytek UK due to financial problems. Some of the studio’s employees moved to the company Deep Silver Dambuster, which THQ Nordic bought in February of this year as part of the media publisher Koch Media. Thus, THQ Nordic now has the rights to IP Timesplitters and the team that worked on the original trilogy.
THQ Nordic has been actively buying up studios and franchises for the past few years. In June, the corporation raised $168 million for further expansion. Since the beginning of this year, in addition to Koch Media and Deep Silver, the German mobile developer HandyGames has become the company’s property.
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