No chance of TimeSplitters 4 on Xbox One or PS4

TimeSplitters developer: No chance of TimeSplitters 4 on Xbox One or PS4
The concept art of what could have been

If you're still holding out hope that TimeSplitters 4 might see the light of day on Xbox One and PS4, it might be time to let that dream go.

TechRadar recently spoke to TimeSplitters series developer Steve Ellis, who told us that his experience trying to sell a fourth game while at the now-defunct Free Radical Design showed that the franchise had become unsellable to publishers.

And he doesn't expect that that's about to change with the new consoles, despite many cries from fans to get it off the ground.

"I don't think there's any chance that's going to happen," he said, talking about whether the game might make its way onto the next generation of consoles.

"You always got to the point where the marketing person in the room would say 'I don't know how to sell this' because they want a character that they can put on the front of the box.

"Every marketing person and every publisher we spoke to [said] 'You can't have that as your selling point' and maybe the sales figures of previous games backed that up."

Back to the Future

When asked about what he had wanted to put into TimeSplitters 4, Ellis responded:

"One direction we wanted to take it in was to increase the differentiation between the different characters I think that was one of my key goals for it. To make it less than they are just different skins with slightly different attributes but to give them genuinely different abilities. I think that would be good."

TimeSplitters 4 was in development for a short period of time before Free Radical Design went into administration and was purchased by Crytek. Work on the game was then postponed indefinitely.

Nonetheless, eager fans have been campaigning for the game to be picked up again, while Crytek has given its blessing for a fan-made game, titled TimeSplitters Rewind, to be developed.

Hugh Langley

Hugh Langley is the ex-News Editor of TechRadar. He had written for many magazines and websites including Business Insider, The Telegraph, IGN, Gizmodo, Entrepreneur Magazine, WIRED (UK), TrustedReviews, Business Insider Australia, Business Insider India, Business Insider Singapore, Wareable, The Ambient and more.


Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider covering Google and Alphabet, and has the unfortunate distinction of accidentally linking the TechRadar homepage to a rival publication.