[Eighthours]

Treat this as a rumour for now, but according to someone on the Eurogamer forums this morning, FRD might be toast.

Quote

The locks were changed yesterday, and security is outside the offices not letting people in.

Is this finally goodbye to FRD?

Good luck to everyone there. Shit time of year for it :ph34r:

Quote

My source? The people at the Holiday Inn next door to the offices just wanting to know why they've been locked out...

http://www.eurogamer.net/forum_thread_post...342&start=0

Does anyone know anything about this?

(Mods, obviously if this turns out to be bullshit, delete the topic or change the title.)

[Meh]

Wasn't their last title Timesplitters 3?

[Joyrex-J9]

Probably didn't help that Haze sold about 8 copies

[Ste Pickford]

Similar info on a dev forum, so doesn't look like bullshit.

Shame.

[Charles]

Not that surprising, I heard a few weeks ago they were in financial trouble. Disappointing if true though.

[Meh]

Joyrex-J9, on Dec 18 2008, 01:17 PM, said:

Probably didn't help that Haze sold about 8 copies

Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.

[Scribblor]

I know their QA department got canned a few weeks ago, as well as a bunch of people from other departments. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if it's true. Haze didn't exactly make them much money (since company bonuses were based on Metacritic aggregates), and with Lucasarts canning a bunch of their own staff recently, perhaps they're unwilling to keep throwing cash at FRD for the 'secret project'.

[Soong]

I thought they signed a big deal with Lucasarts? Surely that would secure them. Unless Lucasarts pulled out I guess.

[Joyrex-J9]

I liked Timesplitters 2, perhaps they should have put Timespliters 4 out, rather than that so generic it's almost original tat that was Haze

[Eighthours]

Ste Pickford, on Dec 18 2008, 12:17 PM, said:

Similar info on a dev forum, so doesn't look like bullshit.

Shame.

Shit. :ph34r:

[windowlicker]

Soong, on Dec 18 2008, 12:20 PM, said:

I thought they signed a big deal with Lucasarts? Surely that would secure them. Unless Lucasarts pulled out I guess.

I thought they were making Star Wars: Battlefront 3. I hope that game gets made by someone, whatever happens to FRD.

[Meh]

Oh, face it - they weren't great.

[Soong]

They used to be alright. I guess some left after TS2?

[Number 28]

Oh dear. That's two companies my friend has joined that have gone under... sounds like he can't even soften the blow by pinching off with a few computers, consoles and games this time. :ph34r:

[hanzo]

Aye it's going dooown or something. My colleague next to me used to work there and all his Free Radical ex-colleagues' Facebook statuses are like "oh my god life is shit" "dooom" "doesn't know what to say" etc.

:/

[Sprite Machine]

How many staff do/did they have?

[DangerM]

Heard about this earlier. I've been hearing bad things about them for a while.

Apparently Dave Doak left them last month or something. He obviously saw it coming and got out with his money while he could.

They had/have about 250 staff. I think that was the problem really. For what was essentially a per project company they were trying to be too big.

[Art Vandelay]

I'm not sure they ever made a good game you know.

[silentmajority]

Regardless of their output, it's a real shame to see them going down so close to Xmas. If only because of Goldeneye (which I'm replaying at the moment, and it's still brilliant) I always wanted them to succeed.

[Meh]

Three rubbish, slammed-together Timesplitters games, one genuine atrocity in Second Sight, and... Haze.

lol