What really happened to Free Radical's canned project
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 8:53 am
I've been searching for answers last night and luckily I came across one. There are a few theories around. One is when after Free Radical went under, Crytek bought the company and continued working on it. Another one is that LucasArts handed the rights to rebellion studios to continue finishing the game.
Well one of these are right and the correct one is that Battlefront 3 became Elite Squadron.
The source of this information is on Wikipedia but strangely it can only be found in French. The English version of the article doesn't mention Battlefront 3 at all, weird. No wonder why no one could pick it up.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crytek_UK
Literal translation using Google Translate:
Crytek UK , formerly Free Radical Design is a business English in video game development based in Nottingham . The studio was founded in April 1999 by David Doak, Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton and Graeme Norgate, all former members of Rare who worked on GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark . He is best known for the series TimeSplitters .
On December 19, 2008, the studio was in receivership and ceased all activity on December 24. Nearly 70% of staff left Free Radical. The project of the game Star Wars: Battlefront III was transferred to the studio Rebellion Software , and was canceled shortly thereafter. However, 4 February 2009, the studio Crytek bought the studio and its rights, saving the remaining forty people and the game TimeSplitters 4 . The company was renamed Crytek UK , to report to the German group's apparent Crytek. However Crytek Crytek UK said that the branch would remain relatively free in its choice of productions.
During 2010, Crytek UK moves from Sandiacre to new development offices located in Nottingham , in the district of Southreef. An investment of £ 50 million will allow Crytek UK to grow in the coming months one .
The first job of the studio known as Crytek UK has been producing the multiplayer part Crysis 2 .
What they probably mean by 'canceled' is that the main production of BF3 was stopped, name changed into Elite Squadron, and transformed into a crappy PSP game.
I know it's from Wikipedia (like 5% is pure crap) but it seems pretty logical and real. I'd suspect that one of FR's employees might have wrote this.
Well one of these are right and the correct one is that Battlefront 3 became Elite Squadron.
The source of this information is on Wikipedia but strangely it can only be found in French. The English version of the article doesn't mention Battlefront 3 at all, weird. No wonder why no one could pick it up.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crytek_UK
Literal translation using Google Translate:
Crytek UK , formerly Free Radical Design is a business English in video game development based in Nottingham . The studio was founded in April 1999 by David Doak, Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton and Graeme Norgate, all former members of Rare who worked on GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark . He is best known for the series TimeSplitters .
On December 19, 2008, the studio was in receivership and ceased all activity on December 24. Nearly 70% of staff left Free Radical. The project of the game Star Wars: Battlefront III was transferred to the studio Rebellion Software , and was canceled shortly thereafter. However, 4 February 2009, the studio Crytek bought the studio and its rights, saving the remaining forty people and the game TimeSplitters 4 . The company was renamed Crytek UK , to report to the German group's apparent Crytek. However Crytek Crytek UK said that the branch would remain relatively free in its choice of productions.
During 2010, Crytek UK moves from Sandiacre to new development offices located in Nottingham , in the district of Southreef. An investment of £ 50 million will allow Crytek UK to grow in the coming months one .
The first job of the studio known as Crytek UK has been producing the multiplayer part Crysis 2 .
What they probably mean by 'canceled' is that the main production of BF3 was stopped, name changed into Elite Squadron, and transformed into a crappy PSP game.
I know it's from Wikipedia (like 5% is pure crap) but it seems pretty logical and real. I'd suspect that one of FR's employees might have wrote this.