Crytek UK wasn’t always having to handle its senior management going AWOL while a first person shooter was still in development – as seems to be the case with Homefront: The Revolution these days. It used to be Free Radical, developer of the beloved Timesplitters series before Crytek purchased the studio following its filing for bankruptcy.

Though Timesplitters has yet to see a sequel, there’s still plenty of love for it. As Crytek UK animator Mark Jackson told OXM, “You would not believe the amount of times people ask for Timesplitters. I couldn’t really comment, but there’s a lot of love for it at the studio. I can’t really say much more than that.”

A sequel isn’t happening but does that mean the franchise is dead? “God no! Like I say, in the studio it’s held very dear. It’s just waiting for the right situations and deals to be done. I’m not privy to that, but from everybody working at the studio – everyone, whenever we say what would you like to do next, it’s TimeSplitters.

“So yeah, there’s a lot of love for it. But I couldn’t say where that goes, or who pulls the strings to make that happen, or when it would happen, but it’s certainly not something that people dismiss.”

Do you want to see a new Timesplitters, perhaps for next gen consoles? Let us know in the comments.

However, according to former Free Radical developers Steve Ellis and Karl Hilton, despite having a demo of the game to show publishers, it was the poor response for Haze and the overall lack of identity that was it’s ultimate undoing.

In conversation with GamesTM, Ellis stated, “We pitched [Timesplitters] to a lot of publishers, and from each of them we got the same two responses. Firstly, they would ask what happened with Haze. We were the company that made a series of high-rated shooters and then we had released Haze, which wasn’t as well received. This worried them.

“Secondly, their marketing person would say something alone the lines of, ‘I don’t know how to sell this.’ The unanimous opinion among all publishers that we pitched TimeSplitters 4 to is that you can’t market a game that is based around a diverse set of characters and environments – you need a clear and easily communicated marketing message, and TimeSplitters doesn’t have one.

“Perhaps they are all right. Perhaps this is why the previous games in the series achieved much more critical success than commercial success. For these reasons, one by one they all declined to sign the project.”

Regardless, many a gamer out there have a soft spot for the crazy, time-hopping adventure. Here’s hoping some one at Crytek ultimately greenlights it.

Source: GIBiz

Timesplitters 4 is something a lot of fans desire, and Cevat Yerli CEO of Crytek has revealed that, as much as he wants to see a new Timesplitters game, the publishers just aren’t too fond of the idea. But he has hinted that there could be a way!

“I wish we would develop it. We can’t develop it the way Free Radical had started it before we acquired them,” he said in an interview with Videogamer.

“When we looked at it – and again, I love Timesplitters, I’m a huge Timesplitters fan particularly of the multiplayer part. I love the idea, I love the brand, I love everything – but the publishers don’t. That’s reality. And I don’t want to spend our own money on the project in a retail business.”

Yerli wants to see a lot more enthusiasm from fans and has mentioned that he would love to see the game running on GFACE free-to-play platform. There’s already a Facebook movement for the game which has garnered over 19,000 likes.

“So let me say it this way: I love the picture of a Timesplitters running on GFACE. So if we get enough fans, being loud enough…,” Yerli revealed.  The best way to make this happen is to like the Facebook page and tell Crytek how much you want the game!

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli has revealed that they don’t want to make a sequel to Timesplitters, because they don’t know know how people will receive it. He doesn’t think publishers would like what they have in mind for the sequel and it would be difficult for them to pitch it.

“The thing with TimeSplitters is, if we made a sequel to TimeSplitters, nobody would accept this apart from some fans, and we don’t know how big the fan community is unfortunately,” Yerli told CVG.

“And we don’t want to design this as a packaged goods game that launches on a console, and even if we wanted to I don’t think publishers would like the idea. That is the truth, and that was the truth even before we bought Free Radical.”

That’s pretty unfortunate for the fans. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

If you create a FPS which is not Call of Duty or Battlefield, you won’t make any money says Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis.

“Nobody really buys any FPSes unless they’re called Call Of Duty,” he said.

“I guess Battlefield did okay, but aside from that pretty much every FPS loses money.”

“I spent the whole of 2008 going round talking to publishers trying to sign up Timesplitters 4,” he revealed to Edge.

“There just isn’t the interest there in doing anything that tries to step away from the rules of the genre – no one wants to do something that’s quirky and different, because it’s too much of a risk. And a large part of that is the cost of doing it.”

Do you agree with him? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Crytek has come out and denied reports that Timesplitters 4 is in development. They told CVG in a Cryptic manner and you can check it out below.

“For Timesplitters 4, with ever spiralling development costs, massive teams and endless crunch we decided on a more radical development strategy.

“In short, the experiment was to implement the infinite monkey theorem. With cloning being a far too expensive option, we spent all of the development budget on buying monkeys on the black market.

“Those seven monkeys are now sat in a room with typewriters and lots of mirrors, and we fully expect Timesplitters 4 to be finished soon. Rumours are that they haven’t written any code but just tease the press from time to time. Those damn monkeys.

“PS: anyone got any bananas?”

There you go! If you put 2 and 2 together you get the message that the game is not in development at Crytek. So disregard all rumours from now on.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.