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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Free Radical being prospected for buying.

LordTheNightKnight on 22 December 2008
Dodece said:
@topic

I highly recommend that fellow members restrain their enthusiasm in regards to these comments. While they may not be bogus. Such comments are often more about salesmanship then substance. This is a good way to create interest. The implication that others may be looking to acquire you, and the follow up question is thus. Do they have something of value that I would want, or that I would not want others to have.

I have read similar comments over the years. The vast majority have nothing to show for them. Eventually you start to realize that its usually just a rather sloppy desperate way to try to con very smart people into thinking you might be worth something. I would say this if there was serious interest in the developer. The developer would have been exploring that before things came this far. Better to be acquired solvent then after your value hits rock bottom.

@Factor 5

There is almost nothing of value. They only have one recognized intellectual property, and that being Lair. They licensed third party properties. One property in particular, and made their name on a third place console. They have nothing to sell not even their name. For them to be acquired their project must sell the buyer. Not only must it be of a high quality, but reasonably along in development. They cannot even make a compelling potential argument. Given their limited production, and the failure of their last production.

I would actually say they are a text book example of a failed developer that could not even be acquired part or parcel. There is nothing there at all to want. So why would anyone spend good money on that.

 

I hope you realise this is not about Factor 5.



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Cobretti2 on 22 December 2008

My bets are on Ubisoft or EA to buy them.

Although it would be good if Nintendo did some agressive buying of troubled developers. They sure as hell need some mature games on their console. PS3 and 360 will do fine without free radicals or factor 5 for that matter as they have LOTS of 3rd party support already.



 

 

Zucas on 22 December 2008

Ubisoft will probably pick them up if I had to take a guess. If not them then EA or Lucasarts.



megaman79 on 22 December 2008

Who cares, as long as it isn't Sony or MS its good



“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.

MaxwellGT2000 on 22 December 2008

Well Free Radical was already supposed to be developing Star Wars Battlefront 3 for the Wii... which makes me really sad if they don't get picked up or at least the game... which yeah I hope for more Timesplitters and their other great IPs just no more Haze or anything v_v



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NiKKoM on 22 December 2008

So.. who gonna buy them.. when 20 of probably their best are gonna work at a new studio founded by a Free Radical Founder...:

 

Free Radical Founder Sets Up New Studio

By Owen Good, 9:00 AM on Sat Dec 20 2008, 13,810 views

A few months before Free Radical Design cratered, founder Steve Ellis set up a new studio and parked the domain for "Pumpkin Beach." Well, he and 20 former FRD coders now have jobs there.

Smashpad had a source inside the now-closed studio, noted for its TimeSplitters and Haze IPs, who said Pumpkin Beach was set up about four months ago in-house. "We were told that because the project was going to be quite different from Free Radical’s previous games," said Smashpad's source, "they were setting up a new company, sort of a new label for the game, to avoid the associations with TimeSplitters and Haze."

Avoiding associations with the universally-panned Haze? Sound strategy. The source semi-disputed rumors that Lucasarts was most displeased and took away Battlefront III, giving it to Rebellion. But he or she didn't elaborate on them being "not entirely true."

The story also links over to the Unofficial Free Radical Design Blog, which having no Free Radical Design to blog about, continues the story:

Sources explain Dave Doak had left Free Radical Design a month ago. He and Steve Ellis are now looking at creating a new game developer company called Pumpkin Beach. Little is known about their plans for this company but a website, http://www.pumpkinbeach.com/, has been reserved. It is possible TimeSplitters 4 could be sold to this new company. Maybe this new company was created as a rescue for TimeSplitters 4 but the lack of publisher support makes the idea a risky one.

During the meeting roughly 20 staff positions were offered into the new company for people at Free Radical Design. Codemasters and Monumental Games were also at the hotel used to hold the meeting to ask for CVs and applications for anyone who was interested.

So, there's some reason to be optimistic amongst the fallout; the jettisoned Free Radical employees either have jobs, or decent prospects, and TimeSplitters 4 is at minimum rumor-worthy, which is good, because this swrrt concept art surely needs a home.

http://kotaku.com/5114861/free-radical-founder-sets-up-new-studio



 

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MaxwellGT2000 on 22 December 2008
NiKKoM said:

So.. who gonna buy them.. when 20 of probably their best are gonna work at a new studio founded by a Free Radical Founder...:

 

Free Radical Founder Sets Up New Studio

By Owen Good, 9:00 AM on Sat Dec 20 2008, 13,810 views

A few months before Free Radical Design cratered, founder Steve Ellis set up a new studio and parked the domain for "Pumpkin Beach." Well, he and 20 former FRD coders now have jobs there.

Smashpad had a source inside the now-closed studio, noted for its TimeSplitters and Haze IPs, who said Pumpkin Beach was set up about four months ago in-house. "We were told that because the project was going to be quite different from Free Radical’s previous games," said Smashpad's source, "they were setting up a new company, sort of a new label for the game, to avoid the associations with TimeSplitters and Haze."

Avoiding associations with the universally-panned Haze? Sound strategy. The source semi-disputed rumors that Lucasarts was most displeased and took away Battlefront III, giving it to Rebellion. But he or she didn't elaborate on them being "not entirely true."

The story also links over to the Unofficial Free Radical Design Blog, which having no Free Radical Design to blog about, continues the story:

Sources explain Dave Doak had left Free Radical Design a month ago. He and Steve Ellis are now looking at creating a new game developer company called Pumpkin Beach. Little is known about their plans for this company but a website, http://www.pumpkinbeach.com/, has been reserved. It is possible TimeSplitters 4 could be sold to this new company. Maybe this new company was created as a rescue for TimeSplitters 4 but the lack of publisher support makes the idea a risky one.

During the meeting roughly 20 staff positions were offered into the new company for people at Free Radical Design. Codemasters and Monumental Games were also at the hotel used to hold the meeting to ask for CVs and applications for anyone who was interested.

So, there's some reason to be optimistic amongst the fallout; the jettisoned Free Radical employees either have jobs, or decent prospects, and TimeSplitters 4 is at minimum rumor-worthy, which is good, because this swrrt concept art surely needs a home.

http://kotaku.com/5114861/free-radical-founder-sets-up-new-studio

 

So basically the RARE guys that founded Free Radical are jumping ship and making yet another company =P I mean they make some amazing games but every company they leave is left in ruin, I think they like change personally haha



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stof on 22 December 2008

I'm predicting that some time soon, Nintendo is going to buy a small talented western dev. Free Radical or Factor 5 would be some good possibilities.



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StarcraftManiac on 22 December 2008

Go Nintendo! Buy them! Now is your chance.

As for the TS-series... I hope it's being continued when they are bought! And I don't expect Ubisoft to pick them up! For they only did Haze, but EA did TS: Future Perfect, Eidos did TS2 and Codemasters did Second Sight.

Oh, and as for Microsoft; They left Rare when it was being bought by Microsoft so don't bet on it!



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