THQ Nordic Has Picked Up The Rights To Timesplitters

Throughout the mid-aughts there were a ton of mid-budget games that came out for home consoles and PC. One of those games was Free Radical's Timesplitters series, an irreverent first-person shooter themed around time travel, over-the-top characters, a diverse set of weaponry, and lots of awesome multiplayer modes. The game series never really garnered the kind of sales that would put it on par with games like Halo or DOOM or Half-Life, but it did pick up a rather sizable fanbase over the years. Well, THQ Nordic has announced that, after the Timesplitters franchise has been left dormant under the intellectual property wing of Crytek, the company has acquired the rights to the Timesplitters trilogy. And, this spells good news for fans of the sci-fi shooting game.

In a press statement sent out to the public, THQ Nordic revealed that Timesplitters and Second Sight have both been picked up by the company. There's no mention about what THQ plans to do with the properties, but it's not hard to imagine what's being planned down the road.

For instance, Free Radical Design may have initially made Timesplitters but the company dissolved after LucasArts cancelled Star Wars: Battlefront 3. The leaked alpha footage for the game has become endeared by fans as being the kind of Battlefront game they've always wanted, but with the cancellation came the eventual shut down of Free Radical, which was later picked up by Crytek. With the purchase of Free Radical came the Timesplitters property. Crytek didn't really do anything with the property, but some of the community began working on a free version of the game known as Timesplitters: Rewind with Crytek's blessings.

Due to financial issues plaguing Crytek, the company downsized and sold off various properties while Free Radical was transitioned into Dambuster Studios under Deep Silver. Now THQ Nordic has managed to purchase Timesplitters and the company has Free Radical's former staff in Dambuster Studios under the Deep Silver label, which THQ also owns. So, what does all of this mean? It means that THQ Nordic has the Timesplitters IP and the original developers under its umbrella, and, technically, they could get back to work on Timesplitters 4.

Of course, for now, there have been no announcements about what THQ Nordic plans to do with the series other than that it's been bought up.

A lot of fans have been asking what will become of Timesplitters: Rewind, the fan-made game, and the team for the project made a post over on the Facebook page stating that they would inform the community about the future of the project in light of THQ's announcement.

A lot of gamers are hoping that THQ will re-release the old games as remastered editions, similar to what many companies have been doing with old properties such as Forsaken or StarCraft, or even more recent properties like Dark Souls. So, that would probably be the first order of business before getting into the whole sequel discussion, but, we'll see what THQ has planned for Timesplitters and Second Sight.