Hot on the heels of the release of PlayStation 2 games Tomb Raider Legend, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 via the PlayStation Plus Classics Catalog comes word of the next potential addition to the list: TimeSplitters.
Gematsu spotted a rating for TimeSplitters on PS5 and PS4 in Taiwan, indicating Free Radical Design’s much-loved shooter is coming to the Classics Catalog soon.
TimeSplitters has been rated for PS5 and PS4 in Taiwan. 99 percent likely it's the PS2 version for the PlayStation Plus Classics Catalog, considering the platforms. Search "TimeSplitters" here to see the rating yourself: https://t.co/kSQ7a9X1P4 pic.twitter.com/InFED7ihTx
— Gematsu (@gematsu) June 18, 2024
TimeSplitters first released in 2000 as a launch game for the PlayStation 2 and a spiritual successor to Rare’s GoldenEye and Perfect Dark. Indeed TimeSplitters was made by some of the people who worked on those iconic N64 shooters. It took place across multiple different time periods with 18 separate characters battling against the titular foe, creatures who can travel through time and wreck history using special crystals.
It got a sequel in TimeSplitters 2 in 2002, and a further entry in 2005 called TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. After Free Radical struggled to find a publisher for a fourth game, the rights languished at Crysis developer Crytek for years before Deep Silver parent Koch Media bought them up in 2018. Eventually, as with so much video game intellectual property, TimeSplitters ended up in Embracer’s vault.
In 2021, publisher Deep Silver finally announced the return of TimeSplitters alongside key original members of Free Radical Design, including founders Steve Ellis and David Doak, at a new studio set up in Nottingham, UK. However, in December 2023, Free Radical shut down amid the devastating restructure at embattled games company Embracer. Gameplay footage of the canceled project showed similarities to battle royale Fortnite. Reportedly, TimeSplitters Next, as it was called, began as something of a Fortnite clone before it was shifted to more closely resemble TimeSplitters 2.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
