It’s a pity that Embracer couldn’t even keep the studio they founded, instead of buying it.
Unfortunately, it seems likely that Free Radical Design will close again.
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| Embracer confirms that free radicals could split a second time |
The original Free Radical Design existed between 1999 and 2014. To be clear, the new studio isn’t exactly the same company that existed at the time, but parent company Embracer tried to assemble as much of the original team as possible.
It’s important to underline this, because the story of Free Radical Design is completely different from that of Volition. Even though the name is old, this studio is very, very new and was built from scratch by Embracer Group itself. The interest in recreating Free Radical was that Embracer had managed to get their hands on the IP Time Schedules, and they were looking for the best studio possible to create new Time Schedules Games.
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It seems somewhat childish and simplistic to try to recreate as much as possible the old studio. If companies like Ubisoft or Activision got their hands on the IP Time Splitter, and they wanted to relaunch it, they would most likely assign one of the many studios they already have.
But by the time Embracer rebuilt Free Radical, they still had the money to do it, or at least they thought they had money to spend, for that investment and many more.
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Earlier this month, we reported rumours that Embracer was planning this action. As Eurogamer reports today, an internal letter sent by Embracer CEO Lars Wingefor to Free Radical staff confirmed the rumour.
Lars shared this message:
"As we move forward with the consultation process and face the potential closure of Free Radical Design on December 11, 2023, I would like to express my gratitude for your commitment and the outstanding work you have done and continue to do...
This is a difficult time for all of us, but especially for you, and our goal is to support you as much as possible during this transition.
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UK law requires UK-based companies, such as Free Radical, to go through a 30-day consultation process before seeking layoffs, in other words layoffs.
While it is not impossible for the company to survive, there is currently no clear path to do so. Embracer needs to find an investor who would be interested in either investing money in Embracer itself, or buying Free Radical and/or IP Time Splitters. We can only hope that this will happen before the end of the year.
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