TimeSplitters is returning for a new game with several former leads

TimeSplitters studio Free Radical is reforming to make a new game in the franchise.

Publisher Deep Silver has announced today, May 20, that several members of the original development team would be returning for a new TimeSplitters game.  

Former Free Radical founder Steve Ellis said in a statement: "To finally be able to confirm that the studio has been formed and that we have a plan for the next TimeSplitters game is incredible. While we cannot tell you anything more at the moment, we look forward to sharing information in the future." 

Original studio founder David Doak is returning alongside Ellis, who will be serving as the studio development director at Free Radical for the new TimeSplitters game. According to the press release, development on the new TimeSplitters game isn't expected to begin for at least the next few months.

If you're unfamiliar with the historical shooter series, TimeSplitters first launched all the way back in 2000, the product of a few developers who had left studio Rare a few years prior. A launch game for the PS2, TimeSplitters followed in the footsteps of older shooters like Goldeneye with arcade firefights between a cast of colorful characters.

TimeSplitters sold well enough on the PS2 to garner a sequel, TimeSplitters 2, which was released just two years after the original in 2002. Rounding out the franchise was TimeSplitters: Future Perfect in 2005, after which developer Free Radical struggled to strike a deal with a publisher for a fourth game, and the rights reverted back to publisher Crytek.

Today's announcement is the result of Deep Silver parent company Koch Media  purchasing the rights to the TimeSplitters franchise back in 2018. Alongside this purchase of the rights was when developer Steve Ellis signed up to help "plot the future course of the franchise," and we're finally seeing the results of that plotting.

For more on Free Radical's brilliant shooter series, head over to our writeup on the history of TimeSplitters for more.