Time-traveling shooter trilogy Timesplitters will be making a return, with Koch Media acquiring the franchise.
Koch Media, the German media company behind Dead Island and Metro publisher Deep Silver, has announced that it’s acquired the intellectual property and rights to the Timesplitters series.
Although the media giant hasn’t revealed whether it plans to remaster the original series or start completely fresh, we do know Timesplitters is coming back.
“We are hugely excited to have acquired Timesplitters,” commented Koch Media CEO Klemens Kundratitz. “The original games gave fans a massive content offer and provided a pure and genuinely fun arcade shooter experience. We have many fans of the Timesplitters series among our own staff who are passionate about creating a product that will thrill today’s gaming audience.”
What is Timesplitters?
Originally released in 2000, Timesplitters is a first-person action shooter which sees you traveling through time in a story mode spanning several centuries in an effort to stop an alien race of Timesplitters from wreaking havoc on humanity, and time itself.
The series comprises three titles: Timesplitters, Timesplitters 2 and Timesplitters: Future Perfect. In each game you time-travel to a particular point in time, and in each time period you either take on the role of (or team up with) a character from that time period, many of whom are stereotypes of pop culture references, such as the sleazy 70s secret agent or the veteran British adventurer.
On top of the main campaign, each game offers a map-maker, multiplayer arcade and challenge mode.
Timesplitters was originally created by Free Radical Design, which later became Crytek UK. Speaking to TechRadar in 2012, Timesplitters developer Steve Ellis revealed that there was no chance we would be seeing Timesplitters 4 on PS4 or Xbox One, as the series proved difficult to market in the modern games climate. Crytek eventually shut down in 2014 and the majority of staff were moved to Dambuster Studios, hammering the final nail in the coffin of a potential Timesplitters 4 title – until now.
What about Timesplitters Rewind?
Timesplitters Rewind is a fan-made (and Crytek-blessed) project which has been six years in the making, and which aims to essentially create Timesplitters 4. According to project lead Michael Hubicka, the game combines the earlier elements of the trilogy. However, with Koch Media acquiring the rights to Timesplitters, it’s uncertain whether the fan-made game can continue development. We’ve reached out to Koch Media for comment.
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