Crytek UK
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Formerly called
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Video game industry |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Successor | Dambuster Studios |
| Founded | 29 October 1998 in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, England |
| Founders |
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| Defunct | 30 July 2014 |
| Headquarters | Nottingham, England |
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Key people
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| Products | TimeSplitters |
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Number of employees
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130 (2014) |
| Parent | Crytek (2009–2014) |
Crytek UK Limited (formerly Free Radical Design Ltd.) was a British video game developer based in Nottingham, England. Founded by David Doak, Stephen John "Steve" Ellis, Karl Ivar Hilton and Graeme Norgate in Stoke-on-Trent on 29 October 1998, they were best known for their TimeSplitters series of games. After going into financial administration, it was announced on 4 February 2009 that the studio had been acquired by German video game developer Crytek and would be renamed Crytek UK. Crytek had a good relationship with the city of Nottingham due in part to its sponsorship of the Gamecity festival and its recruitment drives with Nottingham Trent University. In 2014, the studio was shut down and the majority of the staff transferred to the newly formed Dambuster Studios.
Most of Free Radical Design's employees previously worked for the game developer Rare. While at Rare, they (David Doak, Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton, Graeme Norgate and Lee Ray) worked on the Nintendo 64 first-person shooters GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. From late 1998 to early 1999, this team left Rare to form Free Radical Design, which was established in April 1999, their first release being TimeSplitters for the PlayStation 2 in 2000. It was known for its very fast-paced gameplay and its particular emphasis on multiplayer rather than story.TimeSplitters attracted attention at the time because of the former Rare employees' work on the critically acclaimed GoldenEye 007. Its sequel, TimeSplitters 2, became the highest-ranked first-person shooter for PlayStation 2 on GameRankings.
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