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Factor 5 and Free Radical both dead

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Factor 5, makers of the Rogue Squadron series, Lair, and my personal favorite, Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures, has gone belly-up:

 

From Matt-IGN on the message boards over at IGN:

 

Was hoping the rumors weren't true. Contacted Julian over at F5 to shed some light, but he didn't get back to me. Got an e-mail from an inside source tonight:

 

"Hi Matt,

 

How have you been? Haven't seen you guys since E3. I hope that you're doing well!

 

[Edit] wanted me to contact you with some late breaking news. We just learned from inside sources that developer Factor 5 has officially closed their doors as of today. That's some pretty big news considering that those guys have been around for quite a while. It's definitely a real shame! I hope that this information is helpful to you. Take care, and please say hi to Bozon for me."

 

Beh. Not sure what this does to Kid Icarus, either, but it sure doesn't sound good. I'll keep you posted. I'm still holding out some kind of hope there may yet be a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Matt

 

http://boards.ign.com/nintendo_wii_general...175069162/p1/?1

 

Free Radical, makers of TimeSplitters and Haze, also gone:

 

A COMPUTER games company which employs 185 people has gone in to administration.

 

Staff at Free Radical Design, which is based in Bostocks Lane, Sandiacre, turned up to work this morning to find the locks had been changed.

 

A note stuck on the door told them to attend a meeting at the nearby Novotel at midday.

 

Cameron Gunn, of Resolve Partners, the administrators that have been called in to deal with the firm, said: "The company was placed in to administration yesterday afternoon.

 

"We will be spending the next three or four days assessing the financial position of the company but it's business as usual, although we have asked that almost all of the employees apart from a skeleton crew remain at home."

 

"All employees have been paid up until the end of December and we hope to make another announcement before Christmas or very soon thereafter, but we must stress at this stage that it's business as usual."

 

It is unclear exactly how many people will lose their jobs.

 

The company are understood to have been working on a Star Wars game for LucasArts .

 

Other games released by the company include Haze, Second Sight and the Timesplitters series.

 

I think this really shows how risky next-gen development can be. These weren't exactly small-time studios. They were pretty big deals at one time who were each killed by just one big failure. If they were making Kid Icarus, and Matt from IGN seems pretty sure they were, then maybe Nintendo should buy them out. I know that's antithetical to their business model, but there's no reason to let all the work that's presumable been done on the game go to waste. As for Free Radical, they were kind of a one-trick pony. They made a name on their Rare ties and TimeSplitters 2 was good, but that was six years ago and they haven't done much of note since.

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Loved the Timesplitters series. Been thinking of trying out Haze as well.

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