Recently, THQ Nordic has purchased Koch Media, which owned the Deep Silver publishing line as well as other media groups. This has made most of the previously THQ properties, which in majority spread between THQ Nordic and Deep Silver, back under one roof.
And that includes the rights to TimeSplitters and Second Sight.
TimeSplitters was an FPS series created by Free Radical Design, formed from former Rare developers. Its FPS style was highly remnant of GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark, but even more wacky and funny. The series last ended with the EA-published TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, bringing in a fully-fleshed story mode and the terrible, terrible (but charming) one-liner every time hero Sgt. Cortez jumps into another timeline: “It’s time to split!”.
Free Radical then made Second Sight, published by Codemasters. It featured a deeper, more serious storyline about an amnesiac who awaken to discover he has psychic powers. It was released closely to another game with psychic powers: Psi-Ops: The Mind Gate Conspiracy.
After the cancellation of Star Wars Battlefront III and the terrible reception of Haze, Free Radical was then bought by Crytek, rebranded as Crytek UK. They also brought the IP rights with them and was tasked to make a Homefront sequel. After a series of financial issues at Crytek, the company and the Homefront IP was bought by Deep Silver, again changing names to Deep Silver Dambuster.
Now that THQ Nordic owns Deep Silver, it is announcing to the world that they indeed have the rights as well as the original developers under their roof in this press statement:
“Timesplitters was largely considered as one of the most influential console games of the early 2000’s. The three game series earned a large and passionate fan base thanks to its unique humour, art style and pop culture references while encouraging customization and modification to give each person their own individual experience. Timesplitters was originally created by the development studio Free Radical Design that later become Deep Silver Dambuster, part of the THQ Nordic group.
In addition to Timesplitters, the IP and the rights to science fiction action-adventure game Second Sight were acquired. Both acquisitions were made through THQ Nordic’s fully owned subsidiary Koch Media GmbH.
With the rate of remasters being churned out by the publisher, it’s more likely than ever to see these two IPs being remastered soon. And they do have the original team in place should they wish to make a sequel again.
There has been a demand for a new Timesplitters for some time, to the point that there is a fan-made remake in the works called TimeSplitters Rewind.Its development has been officially sanctioned by the developers.
Via Game Informer, WCCFTech