Who bought Free Radical?

[Isildur´s Heir]

The fate of Free Radical (Timesplitters, Haze and Second Sight) will be revealed this wednesday, Feb 4th, so said a formal annoucement from the company's administrator ReSolve Partners.

So, make your bets....

Notice that i didn´t put Nintendo there because they never buy anyone

 

[Electro UK]

Electro Enterprises.

For the price of a single penny.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Actually Nintendo has bought developers before. They bought 80% of Monolith Soft from Namco-Bandai. They also bought Retro Studios. And they used to own 49% of Rare until Microsoft bought it.

As for Free Radical:

I think we can cross Microsoft which has been closing studios left and right (Ensemble and ACES), let Bungie go, and refusing to buy studios that would be more than willing to have been owned by them (BioWare and Bizarre). They seem to be concentrating less and less on expanding first party efforts.

I would also cross Sony off the list because they tend to buy developers that have made a game that is very successful on their consoles like Naughty Dog after the Crash Bandicoot series, Evolution Studios after MotorStorm, Guerrilla Games after Killzone, Zipper Interactive after SOCOM, Eidetic Inc. after Syphon Filter, and forming Incognito Entertainment with employees of SingleTrac after Twisted Metal. If Sony were to accquire more developers it would probably be Insomniac Games (Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet and Clank, Resistance), Media Molecule (LittleBigPlanet), Eat Sleep Play (David Jaffe of Twisted Metal and God of War fame), Sucker Punch (Sly Cooper and inFamous) or Ready at Dawn (Daxter and God of War: Chains of Olympus) over Free Radical which developed Haze which was received poorly and sold just as well.

I'd rule out THQ and Take-Two on the basis that those companies aren't doing too well financially. THQ just recently shut down Helixe, Locomotive Games, Mass Media, Paradigm Entertainment, and Sandblast Games. Take-Two just recently re-upped their contract with the Houser Brothers and Rockstar to keep them, which probably wasn't cheap.

I'm also ruling out on Atari on account that under Phil Harrison, Atari is focusing more on online gaming over traditional gaming, hence their acquisition of Cryptic Studios.

I really can't see Activision Blizzard making a major acquisition on account of their recent merger.

Electronic Arts has plenty of studios (BioWare, Pandemic, Criterion, DICE, Maxis, Mythic, EALA, EA Montreal, EA Canada, Tiburon, ) and plenty of IPs (Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Skate, Need for Speed, Spore, the Simpsons, Battlefield, Burnout, etc.). They really don't have a need for Free Radical.

I'm betting that it was either UbiSoft or Warner Bros., both of which want to expand their operations, will end up being the owner of Free Radical. I would have bet on Eidos, based but they're having financial trouble and will end up getting owned by Warner Bros. anyways.

 

[Havok83]

I hope somebody did bc I want Timesplitters 4

 

[ProjectPat2280]

As long as we never, ever get another Haze, i dont care where they go.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

Actually Nintendo has bought developers before. They bought 80% of Monolith Soft from Namco-Bandai. They also bought Retro Studios. And they used to own 49% of Rare until Microsoft bought it.

As for Free Radical:

I think we can cross Microsoft which has been closing studios left and right (Ensemble and ACES), let Bungie go, and refusing to buy studios that would be more than willing to have been owned by them (BioWare and Bizarre). They seem to be concentrating less and less on expanding first party efforts.

I would also cross Sony off the list because they tend to buy developers that have made a game that is very successful on their consoles like Naughty Dog after the Crash Bandicoot series, Evolution Studios after MotorStorm, Guerrilla Games after Killzone, Zipper Interactive after SOCOM, Eidetic Inc. after Syphon Filter, and forming Incognito Entertainment with employees of SingleTrac after Twisted Metal. If Sony were to accquire more developers it would probably be Insomniac Games (Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet and Clank, Resistance), Media Molecule (LittleBigPlanet), Eat Sleep Play (David Jaffe of Twisted Metal and God of War fame), Sucker Punch (Sly Cooper and inFamous) or Ready at Dawn (Daxter and God of War: Chains of Olympus) over Free Radical which developed Haze which was received poorly and sold just as well.

I'd rule out THQ and Take-Two on the basis that those companies aren't doing too well financially. THQ just recently shut down Helixe, Locomotive Games, Mass Media, Paradigm Entertainment, and Sandblast Games. Take-Two just recently re-upped their contract with the Houser Brothers and Rockstar to keep them, which probably wasn't cheap.

I'm also ruling out on Atari on account that under Phil Harrison, Atari is focusing more on online gaming over traditional gaming, hence their acquisition of Cryptic Studios.

I really can't see Activision Blizzard making a major acquisition on account of their recent merger.

Electronic Arts has plenty of studios (BioWare, Pandemic, Criterion, DICE, Maxis, Mythic, EALA, EA Montreal, EA Canada, Tiburon, ) and plenty of IPs (Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Skate, Need for Speed, Spore, the Simpsons, Battlefield, Burnout, etc.). They really don't have a need for Free Radical.

I'm betting that it was either UbiSoft or Warner Bros., both of which want to expand their operations, will end up being the owner of Free Radical. I would have bet on Eidos, based but they're having financial trouble and will end up getting owned by Warner Bros. anyways.

I always thought that Nintendo was all about in house...

You give good reasons, but i also can´t imagine neither Ubisoft nor Warner Bros.
Time Warner is trying to buy Eidos, so, until that is all set and done i don´t believe they will try to buy anyone else.
As for Ubisoft, they just bought Massive....

I say Atari because, even if they jumping into online gaming, that can´t be all they do, no matter what Harrison say.
Also, Timesplitter was big on MP, and besides Cryptic and Eden Games, i don´t think Atari has any 1st party studio.

Also, because Free Radical is almost a Rare 2 (the majority of FR employees came from Rare), and, like you say they are almost without 1st parties, i can´t rule out Microsoft.

I didn´t put Eidos nor Midway because, one is one the verge of being bought, and the other, is on the verge of bankrupcy.
I hope someone buys Midway too.

Now that i think of it, there is another we forgot, Codemasters.
But i also can´t see that happening...even if both companies are from the UK

 

[Soapy]

I vote Atari.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I always thought that Nintendo was all about in house...

For the most part they are, asides from Retro Studios and Monolith Soft, the rest of Nintendo's internal studios (EAD, NST, Brownie Brown, and Intelligent Systems) were all formed from within Nintendo. I'm surprised that Nintendo hasn't bought their major second party studios like HAL Laboratory, Camelot, and Game Freak.

You give good reasons, but i also can´t imagine neither Ubisoft nor Warner Bros.
Time Warner is trying to buy Eidos, so, until that is all set and done i don´t believe they will try to buy anyone else.

Out of all the media conglomerates like Disney, Viacom, and Warner Bros., that have been trying to penetrate the video game market, Warner Bros. is the only one that has really been putting in a legitimate effort in being a serious contender.

Right now they only have two development teams in Monolith Productions and Traveller's Tales. Buying Eidos is going to take time, they're doing it incrementally as opposed to right away. But they can still buy developers right off the bat, like Free Radical and boost their development efforts right then and there. And when they eventually do take over Eidos, they can add a decent internal group with Eidos' and create a much stronger company. I wouldn't be surprised to see Warner Bros. try and obtain studios that are associated with Eidos as well like Rocksteady and Deadline Games as well overtime.

Warner Bros. also has few video game IPs that are not related to Warner Bros. properties like Batman, Watchmen, and Looney Tunes. Adding Free Radical's TimeSplitters IP can boost their portfolio of Lego and F.E.A.R.

As for Ubisoft, they just bought Massive....

So? UbiSoft wants to make acquisitions. Smaller ones not bigger ones like what EA tried to do with Take-Two and Warner Bros. is doing with Eidos. And they're making these acquisitons at a fast pace. Just a few months before buying Massive, they bought Hybride Technologies and less than two weeks ago they bought Southlogic Studios. They tried to get Cryptic as well, but Atari beat them. They still have a few deals getting finalized as well. Southlogic was one of them, maybe Free Radical is the other.

I say Atari because, even if they jumping into online gaming, that can´t be all they do, no matter what Harrison say.

True, hence why we're seeing them distribute Ghostbusters, Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena, Backyard Sports, Alone in the Dark, etc.

Also, Timesplitter was big on MP, and besides Cryptic and Eden Games, i don´t think Atari has any 1st party studio.

They also own Humongous, the developers of the Backyard Sports series.

Also, because Free Radical is almost a Rare 2 (the majority of FR employees came from Rare), and, like you say they are almost without 1st parties, i can´t rule out Microsoft.

But why would Microsoft close down Ensemble and ACES just to buy a developer a few days later? Why would they let Bungie go independent? Why wouldn't they buy developers that have a history with Microsoft and would have loved to be owned by them and had more talent than Free Radical.

Microsoft's recent actions, just doesn't jive with the recent purchase of Free Radical.

I didn´t put Eidos nor Midway because, one is one the verge of being bought, and the other, is on the verge of bankrupcy.

If Eidos weren't being bought, I bet they would have tried to obtain Free Radical.

I hope someone buys Midway too.

Midway isn't going to be bought. It's probably going to die a horrible death within a couple of weeks when its debt holders demand that the debt they owe gets paid back. I'm expecting a firesale where bigger developers like THQ, Take-Two, Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, and Warner Bros. gobble up Midway's IPs.

Now that i think of it, there is another we forgot, Codemasters.
But i also can´t see that happening...even if both companies are from the UK

That would be a surprise. However, they are saying that Codemasters might be one of the companies that have bought Free Radical. Monumental Games and Rebellion Developments are also rumored.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

So? UbiSoft wants to make acquisitions. Smaller ones not bigger ones like what EA tried to do with Take-Two and Warner Bros. is doing with Eidos. And they're making these acquisitons at a fast pace. Just a few months before buying Massive, they bought Hybride Technologies and less than two weeks ago they bought Southlogic Studios. They tried to get Cryptic as well, but Atari beat them. They still have a few deals getting finalized as well. Southlogic was one of them, maybe Free Radical is the other.

They just bought Action Pants, which are working in a Wii title.

 

[hippie_hunter]

They just bought Action Pants, which are working in a Wii title.

I still wouldn't take UbiSoft off the charts just yet like the other major publishers because they're going acquisition crazy right now. But with this recent one that just happened well...today, I'm leaning towards Warner Bros. or Codemasters

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

We were all way off.....Free Radical wasn´t bought by a publisher, but rather by another developer.
Who bought Free Radical?

CRYTEK

 

[hippie_hunter]

We were all way off.....Free Radical wasn´t bought by a publisher, but rather by another developer.
Who bought Free Radical?

CRYTEK

Didn't see that happening. I thought a publisher was going to buy Free Radical, not a developer.

On the bright side though, it'll be really cool to see Free Radical develop games using Crytek's graphics technology.

But on the other hand, I think it's a poor decision on Crytek's part. All Crytek has done is FPS games in Far Cry, Crysis, Crysis Warhead. Asides from Second Sight, all Free Radical has done is make FPS games as well. If they wanted to expand their operations and diversify their games portfolio, wouldn't it be better to buy a developer that isn't an FPS developer but one that is experienced in a different genre like they did with the RTS developer Black Sea.

 

[Havok83]

Didn't see that happening. I thought a publisher was going to buy Free Radical, not a developer.

On the bright side though, it'll be really cool to see Free Radical develop games using Crytek's graphics technology.

But on the other hand, I think it's a poor decision on Crytek's part. All Crytek has done is FPS games in Far Cry, Crysis, Crysis Warhead. Asides from Second Sight, all Free Radical has done is make FPS games as well. If they wanted to expand their operations and diversify their games portfolio, wouldn't it be better to buy a developer that isn't an FPS developer but one that is experienced in a different genre like they did with the RTS developer Black Sea.

They probably want a stronger hold on the FPS market kind of like how Square did with RPGs when they started buying up studios that primarily made games of that genre

 

[hippie_hunter]

They probably want a stronger hold on the FPS market kind of like how Square did with RPGs when they started buying up studios that primarily made games of that genre

But Square-Enix is a publisher as well. And if you take a look at them, doing nothing but RPGs is starting to bite them in the ass. It's why they tried to acquire Tecmo and why they're trying to acquire Eidos.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

The bad thing is that Free Radical will became what People Can Fly (PainKiller) is to Epic Games, the second team.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

The Cryengine 2 kicks balls, it would be nice to see more games use it.

 

[Timstuff]

All the options of the poll FTL!

My wishful thinking would have me believe that now it's possible for Free Radical to finish Battlefront 3, but my logical side tells me that it's more likely that Lucas Arts pulled the carpet out from under them because of Haze, so it will probably never be finished. More likely, LA is going to start the project over with Rebellion or Pandemic at the helm. It's a shame, because the surface-to-space combat had the potential to be amazing.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

There is zero chances for Free Radical ever to finished Battlefront 3, sad, but true.

Lucas Arts gave it to Rebellion.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

First change of the day, "Free Radical" is no more, now they are called Crytek UK
So, in other words, Free Radical became a studio inside Crytek.

 

[Soapy]

The guys that have given us so many games over the years have been reduced to Crytek's "B" team.

Of course that doesn't effect the quality of their work, but still...

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

As long as we never, ever get another Haze, i dont care where they go.

lol.
Need to try that game at some point to see if it's as bad as people made out.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

On other news, not about Free Radical or Crytek, Warner Bros. just bougth Snowblind Studios (Baldur´s Gate: Dark Alliance, Champions of Norrath and Justice League Heroes).
So, with TT games and the amazing Monolith, that´s makes 3 studios for WB.
It´s a very good deal for WB and Snowblind.

*hint* Someone should really make a thread about mergings and acquisitions and stick it *hint*