Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
What Really Happened To Free Radical
Curious to know the full story behind the canceled Star Wars Battlefront sequel? Free Radical Co-founder Steve Ellis recounts the decline of one of the UK’s best developers.
Earlier in the month, we got a peek at the Battlefront 3 game that never saw the light of day. Now Free Radical Co-founder Steve Ellis lays out the full story behind the game.
Speaking with GamesIndustry International, Ellis details how Free Radical went from releasing hit titles like TimeSplitters 1 and 2 to struggling through its development of Haze, and eventually talks about how Battlefront 3 got canceled.
“We were still at that time probably a year out from completing and releasing the first game and they asked us to sign up for the sequel,” recalled Ellis. “That was a big deal for us because it meant putting all our eggs in one basket. It was a critical decision - do we want to bet on LucasArts? And we chose to because things were going as well as they ever had. It was a project that looked like it would probably be the most successful thing we had ever done and they were asking us to make the sequel to it too. It seemed like a no-brainer.”
The full story is worth a read, and contains plenty of insight into the difficulties of game development.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
