14 DAY TRIAL // The gaming industry is a very tough line of work for a lot of small independent studios. It's quite hard to finance the development of a game as a small company, so in a lot of cases studios that show promise are bought by other larger companies that have the resources necessary to finance the development of a wide array of titles.
Such was the case with United Kingdom-based Free Radical, which, after the relatively small sales of its first-person-shooter Haze, was forced to fire a lot of employees and effectively shut down, with its IPs, like TimeSplitters, going up for sale to the highest bidder. But as we reported yesterday, large game developer Crytek bought the small company.
Now a few more details have appeared about the acquisition, and it seems that Free Radical will be renamed Crytek UK, so as to fall in line with the other studios the company has all around the world. The fifth development studio under the Crytek umbrella, it will certainly have a pretty big part to play in the future titles of the corporation, as the team will put to good use the high-performance tools, such as the CryEngine, which has powered titles like Crysis and its sequel Crysis: Warhead.
“Free Radical Design is a great fit to Crytek and its culture, given that Free Radical has a proven track record on delivering high quality games,” said Crytek boss Avni Yerli. “The combination of this team, the Crytek network and our CryENGINE technology will be a foundation for outstanding gaming experiences and a magnet for the best talent in the UK.”
While the news that Free Radical has been “saved” by Crytek is nothing but welcomed, the renaming washes away, in a pretty big proportion, the whole identity of the studio. But in business there's no room for feelings so fans will have to get used to calling the company Crytek UK.