Free Radical Design co-founder forms new studio with ex-Rare veterans
Crash Lab making three iOS games.
Former Free Radical Design and Rare developers have joined forces to create a new studio.
Crash Lab, founded by Steve Ellis, Martin Wakeley and Lee Musgrave, is working on three iOS games, GamesIndustry International reports.
Ellis co-founded Free Radical, creator of the much-loved FPS TimeSplitters, in 1999. Before that he worked on seminal console shooter GoldenEye 007 at Rare. Musgrave headed up art at Rare, and helped design Xbox Live Avatars.
Free Radical Design made its name with the TimeSplitters series, which began life on PlayStation 2 in 2000. After the release of the poorly received PlayStation 3 exclusive Haze in 2008, Free Radical Design slipped into administration. In 2009 it was bought by Crysis developer Crytek, renamed Crytek UK, and put to work on the multiplayer portion of Crysis 2, which launched in 2011. It's now making Homefront 2 for publisher THQ.
Ellis said: "It's an exciting time to be making games. It's great to have thrown off the shackles of traditional console development and to be able to enjoy the creative freedom of working on titles without exhaustive development cycles.
"We are working with some great people and we are looking forward to sharing more details of our exciting projects very soon."