Crytek Rehiring Free Radical Staff News

When 140 of Free Radical Design's staff were made redundant on New Year's Eve last year, things were looking bleak for the studio. At that point, a skeleton staff of 43 people remained at the studio, whose jobs were then secured by the Crytek acquisition of FRD a fortnight ago.

In further good news for the Free Radical team (now renamed Crytek UK), it seems that Crytek is planning on reinstating some of the 140 jobs that were lost when Free Radical first went into administration.

Speaking to 1up, Crytek's Managing Director Avni Yerli could confirm that the German developer plans to restock Crytek UK with at least some members of the former Free Radical team.

"To bring the studio to full production capacity in the near future, we intend to employ further staff and some of the staff made redundant did apply," he said.

Yerli was tight-lipped about the future of Free Radical's Timesplitters 4 project though: "At this early stage we're looking into all possibilities, but it's just too early to say," he commented.

However, he did re-iterate that the Crytek UK studio is key to Crytek's plans to develop on consoles:  "Our console plans are no secret - they happened long before we thought of the acquisition of Free Radical. But in the end, the fact that Free Radical is very experienced with console shooters made the deal even more valuable."

So, will Crytek UK be spending its time bringing the Crysis franchise to consoles? Not necessarily according to Yerli, who noted, "Our internal focus is not linked to bringing Crysis to consoles."

There you have it - the plot thickens. It makes us wonder exactly what projects Crytek might have under wraps at this stage. As always, we welcome your thoughts on the comments board below.