Crytek hat Free Radical aufgekauft

[Willy]

www.edge-online.com/features/cryteks-advantageous-timesplitters-buy

Crytek's Advantageous TimeSplitters Buy

When Crytek saw that U.K.-based Free Radical Design was in trouble, the German studio, known for Crysis, saw an opportunity.

Free Radical, the studio behind the first-person TimeSplitters shooter franchise and founded by key developers of the revered Goldeneye 007 for N64, had locked its doors in mid-December, just before the holiday, laying off the majority of staff.

Crytek adjusted quickly to take advantage of the situation, deciding to add a fifth studio to its network. Asked if Crytek was actively looking for studio acquisitions at the time of Free Radical's troubles, studio execs told Edge in a joint interview, "No, we were not actively looking for acquisition targets but always wanted to be in the U.K., the next big step for us. Acquiring Free Radical was thus a great chance for us to realize this aim."

The remaining 43 members of Free Radical ended up coming on board with Crytek, including co-founder Steve Ellis, who was previously rumored to have splintered off into a new venture. The Nottingham-based studio would now become Crytek U.K. and "begin anew," Crytek said.

Along with those remaining staffers came intellectual property, namely the TimeSplitters franchise, which in the past had been published by Eidos and Electronic Arts across three different entries. Crytek confirmed, "Yes, the major Free Radical Design IPs were part of the deal."

The FPS genre is crowded, not with fluff, but with high-quality, well-funded titles nowadays. Even amidst this competition, there has been an underlying buzz surrounding the next TimeSplitters, despite the fact that the franchise has been dormant for four years. The studio had openly confirmed that TimeSplitters 4 is in development.

Crytek, whose games have a grittier realism than the TimeSplitters series, wouldn't confirm what exactly its new U.K. arm would be working on, only saying, "The studio fits into our culture and strategy as they have a proven track record in developing great games on consoles and PC. Our own CryENGINE technology combined with the team’s rich experience is more than perfect we think."

Crytek's console plans are no secret. The company's job listings have revealed open positions for console development, and CryENGINE 2 tech has been showcased for PS3 and Xbox 360. Free Radical's familiarity with console shooters likely sweetened the deal, as Crytek had become known as a PC-centric developer.

Erneut Danke an Mocib von inCrysis. Ich finde das zwar immer etwas frech von mir, das einfach so alles zu übernehmen, aber was will man machen. News sind News.

[Link93]

Timesplitters in Cryengine2?
Hallo wie GENIAL wär das denn

[Willy]

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3172848

Crytek Speaks on Free Radical Purchase

Two weeks ago, Crytek signed a deal to acquire Nottingham, UK-based developer Free Radical. Since then, we've heard rampant speculation about what this will mean for the recently-troubled team, so we went to Crytek managing director Anvi Yerli, one of three brothers who run the Crysis developer, to find out more about the acquisition and why he considers Free Radical a "more than perfect" fit for his team.

Previously a PC only game development company, Crytek announced plans last year to go multi-platform, citing increasing PC game piracy as one of the reasons. Recently, it has been advertising for console programmers, especially those with PlayStation 3 experience. Yerli admits that one of the attractions of Free Radical, which produced PS3-exclusive shooter Haze, was its track record in this area. "Our console plans are no secret -- they happened long before we thought of the acquisition of Free Radical. But in the end, the fact that Free Radical is very experienced with console shooters made the deal even more valuable."

The takeover means that, along with the studio, Crytek now owns the rights to all the major intellectual property that previously belonged to Free Radical -- including the popular TimeSplitters franchise, for which Free Radical had plans before their recent troubles -- but Yerli doesn't have any word on what might become of that just yet. "At this early stage we're looking into all possibilities, but it's just too early to say," he says, adding that Crytek will be taking a close look at the projects which were underway at the studio before the changes happened, and then making decisions together with the development team.

Whether the team continues with an old project or begins a new one, it seems Crytek is not looking to use them in one specific way. "Our internal focus is not linked to bringing Crysis to consoles," says Yerli.

He also confirms that the company -- now re-named Crytek UK -- plans to rehire an unknown number of the 185 staff made redundant on December 31. "To bring the studio to full production capacity in the near future, we intend to employ further staff and some of the staff made redundant did apply," he says.

Finally, Yerli says Crytek has no plans for additional acquisitions in the near future: "We currently have a very strong network with our studios in Frankfurt, Kiev, Budapest, Sofia, Seoul and now also Nottingham, after the acquisition. Our priority is to grow healthy."

Thanks for posting, Mocib.

[foofi]

schöne Zusammenfassung!