Nintendo is a business, not a charity.

I was actually thinking something very similar ...

With how few western publishers are turning healthy profits, and how difficult it is to access credit, I think that Nintendo is one of the few companies who could put in an offer for Free Radical and so they would be cheap at the moment. I really enjoyed the Timesplitters games and Second Site, and I think that (depending on how much debt Free Radical holds) it might make sense to buy Free Radical just to control those IPs; if any of the talent remains in the company this could be an amazing deal for a company like Nintendo.

         Such vulgar language, with no purpose, for almost no reason at all. FYI, FRD had 4 titles sell over 1 million copies and at least 1 to sell over 2 million copies. Then, there's the numerous awards they've won or been nominated for, including "Developer Of The Year". Also, TS2 happens to be the highest ranked PS2 FPS. No bad for an indie company, if you ask me. Free Rad's Staff members have been hired in the past to map levels for other prestigious games, besides the ones they made for FRD and Rare. So, it seems to me that, a large % of the gaming community would strongly disagree with you.  I'm sure they've made an impact on other game studios. I seriously doubt, FPS would be as good today as they are, if the developers behind FRD weren't around. Though, how many games they've sold and how highly accliamed they were doesn't really matters to me, at this point. What matters is, I've spent countless hours enjoying their games and that they've made a memorable impact on me. I'll probably be able to take out 1 of their games, years from now and play it, like it was new. But with a strong argument like TS is shit, I can see I was wrong to waste my time on them. Thanks, for allowing me to see the errors of my ways.

 Don't talk BS... TS 2 and Future Perfect got really good reviews and according to FRD they sold 1 million + on the PS2! The game also had a really fanatic fanbase!

crap, i was looking forward to timesplliters 4, Haze was a killer like they said alright, just the wrong type of a killer

Indeed.

However they could be used to make Donkey Kong Country 4! After all they were part of the original Rare...

But highly unlikely. Nintendo only buys studio's if they have a long working relationship with them. They'll go for Factor5 much earlier than FRD.

Pish-posh. Nintendo is my friend...don't try to poison my mind, FishyJoe. I'm on to you...

It sounds like most of the staff was already gone.

http://www.edge-online.com/features/source-free-radical-locked-up

The source claimed that the company "didn't treat their staff well at all." Rumors of a closure were circulating within the company for "a few weeks."

"People have been leaving in droves due to lack of security, poor treatment of staff, better offers and guaranteed work from other local developers such as Monumental Games and one in Derby whose name escapes me [Rebellion and Core Design both have Derby locations--ed.]."

Doak reportedly "officially" left the company early this month, and Ellis has set up another company called Pumpkin Beach, which already has a placeholder website registered under his name. The two are reportedly working on this project together and will "hand pick" Free Radical staff to join them.

There are a lot of people (PS3 fans primarily) who saw how poorly games like Haze and Lair turned out and have (immediately) turned against the developers who produced those games even though they have a long history of producing excellent games. Certainly, expectations for future games from these companies should be managed but that doesn't mean that they can't return to the quality they were once known for.

Imagine if they combined these guys with Retro studios...