Free Radical Design
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Free Radical Design | |
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| Type | Private |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Sandiacre, Nottingham, England |
| Key people | David Doak Steve Ellis Karl Hilton Graeme Norgate |
| Industry | Computer and video games |
| Products | Video games |
| Website | http://www.frd.co.uk/ |
Free Radical Design is a video game developer, based in Nottingham, England. Sometimes abbreviated FRD, the company is well known for their TimeSplitters video game series and has made a name for themselves as a first person shooter developer.[1]
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[edit] History
Initially, most of FRD's employees previously worked for the game developer Rare. While at Rare, the future FRD team (which consisted of team leader David Doak, Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton, Graeme Norgate and Lee Ray) worked on the Nintendo 64 titles GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. In late 1998 and early 1999 this team left Rare to form their own company. Free Radical Design was up and running by April 1999 with their first release being TimeSplitters for the PlayStation 2 in 2000.[1] TimeSplitters attracted a lot of attention at the time, because much of the coverage associated with the game made sure to note that it was developed by former Rare employees who had worked on the critically acclaimed first person shooter GoldenEye 007. In 2008 after 2 years in development FRD also released Haze.
[edit] Works
[edit] Released
- TimeSplitters (2000) for PlayStation 2
- TimeSplitters 2 (2002) for PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox
- Second Sight (2004) for PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox and Windows
- TimeSplitters Future Perfect (2005) for PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox
- Haze (2008) for PlayStation 3
[edit] Upcoming
- TimeSplitters 4 - According to Free Radical Design's website, a fourth installment of TimeSplitters is well underway. [2]
- Unknown LucasArts title - This new LucasArts game will be released on at least one of the seventh generation video game consoles, either the Wii, Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3. [3] [4]. It has been rumored but unconfirmed that this game will be a fourth installment in the Star Wars: Battlefront series, Star Wars: Battlefront III. This rumour comes from a statement made by Peter Hirschmann, Vice President of Product Development at LucasArts, in which he used the words "Battle" and "Front" in one sentence to describe Free Radical. [5] After employee layoffs a former LucasArts employee has come forward to claim that Battlefront 3, among other games, is indeed a current project. [6]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Hwang, Kaiser (June 2007), “Free Radical: The Face That Launched A Thousand Games”, PSM: pp. 18 - 19
- ^ News: TimeSplitters 4 - first details - ComputerAndVideoGames.com
- ^ GameSpot.com - an article over the upcoming Lucasarts and FRD title
- ^ Free Radical scoops Battlefront - Computer and Videogames article
- ^ Free Radical Design - Secret LucasArts Project - Press Release
- ^ Battlefront 3 confirmed?
