I'm pretty sure this isn't the end of Time Splitters.
They could always sell off the IP.
The thing about that though is that much of what made TimeSplitters great was that it was made by Free Radical (many of the same people who worked on the Perfect Dark/Goldeneye team at Rare). These guys made some of the best console FPS games out there. Sure, another developer could pick it up, but god knows how it'd turn out.
I think I got a little lump in my throat when I read that. I didn't really like Second Sight or Haze, but Timesplitters 2 is probably in my top ten games of all time, the only console shooter since Perfect Dark that I actually enjoyed.
For some people this may not be a big deal, but for me this is kind of like Square-Enix shutting would be for some people. I had high hopes for Timesplitters 4---hell, if I had thought they were in such dire straits I might have bought a copy of Haze just to help them out (I did have some disposable income at the time).
God. Fucking. Dammit.
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DomhnallMinty D. Vision!ScotlandRegistered Userregular
edited December 2008
My Lord that sucks. I was looking forward to TimeSplitters 4.
Any company that has a guy who I shot in the face nigh on fifty times shouldn't go out of business.
Domhnall on
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I'm pretty sure this isn't the end of Time Splitters.
They could always sell off the IP.
The thing about that though is that much of what made TimeSplitters great was that it was made by Free Radical (many of the same people who worked on the Perfect Dark/Goldeneye team at Rare). These guys made some of the best console FPS games out there. Sure, another developer could pick it up, but god knows how it'd turn out.
Perfect Dark Zero is a great (terrible) example of what it might end up like. :x
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HalfmexI mock your value systemYou also appear foolish in the eyes of othersRegistered Userregular
I'm pretty sure this isn't the end of Time Splitters.
They could always sell off the IP.
The thing about that though is that much of what made TimeSplitters great was that it was made by Free Radical (many of the same people who worked on the Perfect Dark/Goldeneye team at Rare). These guys made some of the best console FPS games out there. Sure, another developer could pick it up, but god knows how it'd turn out.
Perfect Dark Zero is a great (terrible) example of what it might end up like. :x
Indeed And to be fair, I enjoyed PD Zero to an extent, but it was a faint shadow of what the original game was and didn't have nearly the level of quality that it might have had if the guys from Free Radical had stayed with Rare to work on it.
One duff game, and a fairly successful developers just closes down?
The development costs for games are skirting or are millions now, so it really only takes one bad selling game to kill a company.
My biggest surprise is that they would prefer to just stop than be absorbed into one of the dozens of big game companies that would probably love to buy them out.
It doesn't make any business sense to me.
Like even if they got bought out by Microsoft, sacked half the staff and made a cut down, multiplayer centric "Timesplitters Live", surely that would be a better option.
One duff game, and a fairly successful developers just closes down?
The development costs for games are skirting or are millions now, so it really only takes one bad selling game to kill a company.
My biggest surprise is that they would prefer to just stop than be absorbed into one of the dozens of big game companies that would probably love to buy them out.
It doesn't make any business sense to me.
Like even if they got bought out by Microsoft, sacked half the staff and made a cut down, multiplayer centric "Timesplitters Live", surely that would be a better option.
The only problem: are there any buyers? It could be that Free Radical explored that option, but it didn't pan out. And with OH SHIT RECESSION YARRRRRRGH going on, publishers might be hesitant to shell out a big wad of money on a dev whose last game tanked.
One duff game, and a fairly successful developers just closes down?
The development costs for games are skirting or are millions now, so it really only takes one bad selling game to kill a company.
My biggest surprise is that they would prefer to just stop than be absorbed into one of the dozens of big game companies that would probably love to buy them out.
It doesn't make any business sense to me.
Like even if they got bought out by Microsoft, sacked half the staff and made a cut down, multiplayer centric "Timesplitters Live", surely that would be a better option.
Pride is a strange thing. Maybe they couldn't bear going from an indie to just another cog?
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Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
edited December 2008
Is the Timesplitters IP really a hot commodity? I'm betting if you asked the average person who plays video games they probably would have never heard of it. This forum has a way of making things seem really popular when they are not.
Is the Timesplitters IP really a hot commodity? I'm betting if you asked the average person who plays video games they probably would have never heard of it. This forum has a way of making things seem really popular when they are not.
I thought it was a pretty big FPS on the last gen systems.
Probably lost a bit of steam since it's been so long.
I was really hyped for Battlefront III to be honest. BF and BFII were the games that convinced me to sign up for Live.
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DomhnallMinty D. Vision!ScotlandRegistered Userregular
Is the Timesplitters IP really a hot commodity? I'm betting if you asked the average person who plays video games they probably would have never heard of it. This forum has a way of making things seem really popular when they are not.
It was certainly produced two of the best FPSes for the GameCube and the Nintendo official magazines loved them a hell of a lot (they also really liked Second Sight). A lot of the people who I knew who had a PS2 played/owned the game. This is anecdotal though and I have absolutely no idea how the game(s) actually performed sale wise.
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You have to wonder about the people making the decisions for a company when they involve Korn in their FPS released in 2008. Korn haven't been relevent for a decade.
Is the Timesplitters IP really a hot commodity? I'm betting if you asked the average person who plays video games they probably would have never heard of it. This forum has a way of making things seem really popular when they are not.
Yeah, I guess them being loved on here, my owning just a Gamecube for most of last generation, and a significant number of my non-serious gamer friends loving them might have amplified how big they are/where in my mind.
You have to wonder about the people making the decisions for a company when they involve Korn in their FPS released in 2008. Korn haven't been relevent for a decade.
I seem to remember TimeSplitters 2 being one of the bigger advertised and "must-buy" shooters for the PS2/GC. Future Perfect was pretty well hyped as well as the successor to TS2, but I don't know if it ever hit the same "must-buy" type status that TS2 got. I never owned 2, but Future Perfect was great in both story, co-op, and multiplay.
Is the Timesplitters IP really a hot commodity? I'm betting if you asked the average person who plays video games they probably would have never heard of it. This forum has a way of making things seem really popular when they are not.
Yeah, I guess them being loved on here, my owning just a Gamecube for most of last generation, and a significant number of my non-serious gamer friends loving them might have amplified how big they are/where in my mind.
To put it another way, you almost never see any threads here devoted to Madden, Brain Training or the Sims.
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Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Is the Timesplitters IP really a hot commodity? I'm betting if you asked the average person who plays video games they probably would have never heard of it. This forum has a way of making things seem really popular when they are not.
Yeah, I guess them being loved on here, my owning just a Gamecube for most of last generation, and a significant number of my non-serious gamer friends loving them might have amplified how big they are/where in my mind.
To put it another way, you almost never see any threads here devoted to Madden, Brain Training or the Sims.
The first time I realized this is a different world is when I was working for Best Buy and talking to some people in media about games and mentioned Ico and nobody knew what I was talking about.
Is the Timesplitters IP really a hot commodity? I'm betting if you asked the average person who plays video games they probably would have never heard of it. This forum has a way of making things seem really popular when they are not.
Yeah, I guess them being loved on here, my owning just a Gamecube for most of last generation, and a significant number of my non-serious gamer friends loving them might have amplified how big they are/where in my mind.
To put it another way, you almost never see any threads here devoted to Madden, Brain Training or the Sims.
The first time I realized this is a different world is when I was working for Best Buy and talking to some people in media about games and mentioned Ico and nobody knew what I was talking about.
I looked up Haze again, (it looked crap when it was being hyped and I don't have a ps3 anyway) and its plot sounds better than most FPS drivel.
It is pretty crappily handled. Basically you start out and see instantly all of these other guys are stupid frat boys with nothing redeemable about them and are completely unlikeable until you meet Jesus.
The current video game industry is broken. At least the HD twins.
The spent billions subsidizing the industry hoping to lure and grown their market. They had some growth but all they really managed to do was cannibalize the hardcore PC gaming market. The OMG 60 FPS crowd.
Once that portion was absorbed their assumption that they can continue to grow at the same rate fell completely flat. The HD gaming market simply isn't big enough to support 2 platforms or the number of games that are released on them, there are not enough HD gaming consumers to buy enough games to make most of these games profitable, which means a larger percentage of these games are going to bomb and lose money, add that to the drastic increase in the cost of making these games, every game that bombs has a strong potential to kill it's development studio.
This was never a sustainable model, there is going to be fewer games released in 2009 and 2010 compared to 2007 and 2008.
Is the Timesplitters IP really a hot commodity? I'm betting if you asked the average person who plays video games they probably would have never heard of it. This forum has a way of making things seem really popular when they are not.
Yeah, I guess them being loved on here, my owning just a Gamecube for most of last generation, and a significant number of my non-serious gamer friends loving them might have amplified how big they are/where in my mind.
To put it another way, you almost never see any threads here devoted to Madden, Brain Training or the Sims.
The first time I realized this is a different world is when I was working for Best Buy and talking to some people in media about games and mentioned Ico and nobody knew what I was talking about.
Strange.
Every Walmart around here that was demoing a PS2 was using ICO.
The current video game industry is broken. At least the HD twins.
The spent billions subsidizing the industry hoping to lure and grown their market. They had some growth but all they really managed to do was cannibalize the hardcore PC gaming market. The OMG 60 FPS crowd.
Once that portion was absorbed their assumption that they can continue to grow at the same rate fell completely flat. The HD gaming market simply isn't big enough to support 2 platforms or the number of games that are released on them, there are not enough HD gaming consumers to buy enough games to make most of these games profitable, which means a larger percentage of these games are going to bomb and lose money, add that to the drastic increase in the cost of making these games, every game that bombs has a strong potential to kill it's development studio.
This was never a sustainable model, there is going to be fewer games released in 2009 and 2010 compared to 2007 and 2008.
You really think Haze flopped because of market conditions and not because it was a bad game? Or that Timsplitters isn't the huge franchise the PA forums seem to think it is because there are to many FPS games?
Also MS and Sony courted PC gamers who were tired of dealing with PC hardware. "Hardcore" PC gamers are still happily playing PC games.
Yeah, Haze selling less than 90k its first month was not the first bomb for FR. (#12 for the month hit 90k, Haze was 19). #25 was 60k.
God, no wonder they went out of business. I never bought Second Sight but it got good reviews and I assumed it did somewhat decently. The low numbers for Future Perfect are what really surprised me. I bought that game as soon as I could and me and my friends didn't stop playing it until...Team Fortress 2, really. It's still our multiplayer game of choice when we're all in the same place.
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HalfmexI mock your value systemYou also appear foolish in the eyes of othersRegistered Userregular
edited December 2008
Yeah, I'm surprised at the low numbers for Future Perfect. That was the FPS multiplayer game of choice for my group of friends for quite a while. It was a pretty great game all around.
Posts
They could always sell off the IP.
Us.
One top-level Shoal
And then deer filling up every other AI slot.
The development costs for games are skirting or are millions now, so it really only takes one bad selling game to kill a company.
I don't even remember anything about Time Splitters other than having fun and shooting zombies.
Games don't get much better than that ya know?
Haha, " Saw of Babylon".
My favorite thing about FP was the crazy weapons. More games need that variety.
For some people this may not be a big deal, but for me this is kind of like Square-Enix shutting would be for some people. I had high hopes for Timesplitters 4---hell, if I had thought they were in such dire straits I might have bought a copy of Haze just to help them out (I did have some disposable income at the time).
God. Fucking. Dammit.
Any company that has a guy who I shot in the face nigh on fifty times shouldn't go out of business.
Steam - Minty D. Vision!
Origin/BF3 - MintyDVision
Perfect Dark Zero is a great (terrible) example of what it might end up like.
My biggest surprise is that they would prefer to just stop than be absorbed into one of the dozens of big game companies that would probably love to buy them out.
It doesn't make any business sense to me.
Like even if they got bought out by Microsoft, sacked half the staff and made a cut down, multiplayer centric "Timesplitters Live", surely that would be a better option.
The only problem: are there any buyers? It could be that Free Radical explored that option, but it didn't pan out. And with OH SHIT RECESSION YARRRRRRGH going on, publishers might be hesitant to shell out a big wad of money on a dev whose last game tanked.
Pride is a strange thing. Maybe they couldn't bear going from an indie to just another cog?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/1JI9WWSRW1YJI
I thought it was a pretty big FPS on the last gen systems.
Probably lost a bit of steam since it's been so long.
I was really hyped for Battlefront III to be honest. BF and BFII were the games that convinced me to sign up for Live.
It was certainly produced two of the best FPSes for the GameCube and the Nintendo official magazines loved them a hell of a lot (they also really liked Second Sight). A lot of the people who I knew who had a PS2 played/owned the game. This is anecdotal though and I have absolutely no idea how the game(s) actually performed sale wise.
Steam - Minty D. Vision!
Origin/BF3 - MintyDVision
Yeah, I guess them being loved on here, my owning just a Gamecube for most of last generation, and a significant number of my non-serious gamer friends loving them might have amplified how big they are/where in my mind.
Were they ever relevant?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/1JI9WWSRW1YJI
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
To put it another way, you almost never see any threads here devoted to Madden, Brain Training or the Sims.
The first time I realized this is a different world is when I was working for Best Buy and talking to some people in media about games and mentioned Ico and nobody knew what I was talking about.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/1JI9WWSRW1YJI
XBX XBX SECOND SIGHT 4,139
PS2 PS2 SECOND SIGHT 2,991
Timesplitters: Future Perfect (PS2, Xbox, GC) 65,181
Yeah, Haze selling less than 90k its first month was not the first bomb for FR. (#12 for the month hit 90k, Haze was 19). #25 was 60k.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Did you punch them?
It is pretty crappily handled. Basically you start out and see instantly all of these other guys are stupid frat boys with nothing redeemable about them and are completely unlikeable until you meet Jesus.
The spent billions subsidizing the industry hoping to lure and grown their market. They had some growth but all they really managed to do was cannibalize the hardcore PC gaming market. The OMG 60 FPS crowd.
Once that portion was absorbed their assumption that they can continue to grow at the same rate fell completely flat. The HD gaming market simply isn't big enough to support 2 platforms or the number of games that are released on them, there are not enough HD gaming consumers to buy enough games to make most of these games profitable, which means a larger percentage of these games are going to bomb and lose money, add that to the drastic increase in the cost of making these games, every game that bombs has a strong potential to kill it's development studio.
This was never a sustainable model, there is going to be fewer games released in 2009 and 2010 compared to 2007 and 2008.
Strange.
Every Walmart around here that was demoing a PS2 was using ICO.
Hell, that's how I knew about the game.
"This... is... awesome."
You really think Haze flopped because of market conditions and not because it was a bad game? Or that Timsplitters isn't the huge franchise the PA forums seem to think it is because there are to many FPS games?
Also MS and Sony courted PC gamers who were tired of dealing with PC hardware. "Hardcore" PC gamers are still happily playing PC games.
God, no wonder they went out of business. I never bought Second Sight but it got good reviews and I assumed it did somewhat decently. The low numbers for Future Perfect are what really surprised me. I bought that game as soon as I could and me and my friends didn't stop playing it until...Team Fortress 2, really. It's still our multiplayer game of choice when we're all in the same place.
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Origin/BF3 - MintyDVision