Free Radical co-founder discusses the downfall of his com...

[robometal cowboy]

Free Radical co-founder discusses the downfall of his company
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"We had our hands tied by employment law because it's slow to get rid of staff that you've had for a long time. A lot of people were on three months notice and before you can either trigger that notice you have to go through a three month consultation period so you need six months worth of money. After the 2008 that we had, we didn't have six months of money. I remember it quite clearly, the day that it became clear that it was actually going to have to go into administration was the day of our Christmas party.

I'll always remember being at that party and having members of staff saying they were really enjoying working at the company and thanks for the Christmas bonus. We always gave a Christmas bonus and we did that year because that amount of money wasn't going to make a difference to the prospects of the company. That was a Friday and the following Monday we had to go into work and start the ball rolling with the administration.

The best days of Free Radical were always when we were a small team of 25 people where everyone knew what everyone else was doing, and if you wanted to do something you could. You didn't have to justify it to a publisher, you didn't have to write it all down on paper, you didn't have a committee of people looking at it, change it and decide if it's a rubbish idea. You could come up with an idea in the morning and have it running by the afternoon and decide if it's any good by actually trying it out. That's a good environment for making games." - Co-founder Steve Ellis

That's only a small snippet of the entire story, which talks about the company's issues over a number of years. Hit up the full feature here.

[Poopaloop]

I'm downvoting this story only because it makes me sad. Poor guys.

[DeMatador]

The mixture of high dev costs and increasingly predatory publishers is killing indie and low-resource studios. Next gen needs to become the self-publishing gen. Steam and Kickstarter might be a big part of it, maybe even Nintendo Network too, if Nintendo's truly opening their eyes to the online world.

[FrenchFryGuy]

"The best days of Free Radical were always when we were a small team of 25 people where everyone knew what everyone else was doing, and if you wanted to do something you could. You didn't have to justify it to a publisher, you didn't have to write it all down on paper, you didn't have a committee of people looking at it, change it and decide if it's a rubbish idea. You could come up with an idea in the morning and have it running by the afternoon and decide if it's any good by actually trying it out. That's a good environment for making games." - Co-founder Steve Ellis

Welcome to the new environment of over-inflated gaming budgets that lead to exactly this kind of situation where game development freedom is virtually non-existent because you can't afford to take risks on games who's budgets mean that if the game is a failure you are pretty much done as a company.

[Gold_Ultima]

;-; This makes me sad because I live near those guys..... I miss Time Splitters...

[Freeload]

"The best days of Free Radical were always when we were a small team of 25 people where everyone knew what everyone else was doing, and if you wanted to do something you could. You didn't have to justify it to a publisher, you didn't have to write it all down on paper, you didn't have a committee of people looking at it, change it and decide if it's a rubbish idea. You could come up with an idea in the morning and have it running by the afternoon and decide if it's any good by actually trying it out. That's a good environment for making games." - Co-founder Steve Ellis

The Downfall of most great games companies is not remembering that.

[GameGod]

While I enjoyed greatly the games these guys made, being at Rare or Free Radical, I can't let pass this: " it's slow to get rid of staff that you've had for a long time", well Steve Ellis you know, staff are people, with lives, family obligations rents to pay, mortgages, etc. that's why there are laws to protect them, otherwise all workers would be slaves & one would easily "get rid of" them, I understand that from your point of view it would have been easier if you could have treated them like cattle, but cattle they are not!
Wlecome to the hard world of being responsible for your fellow co-workers, you had power & with power comes responsability or so I've heard of...

[Gold_Ultima]

While I enjoyed greatly the games these guys made, being at Rare or Free Radical, I can't let pass this: " it's slow to get rid of staff that you've had for a long time", well Steve Ellis you know, staff are people, with lives, family obligations rents to pay, mortgages, etc. that's why there are laws to protect them, otherwise all workers would be slaves & one would easily "get rid of" them, I understand that from your point of view it would have been easier if you could have treated them like cattle, but cattle they are not!
Wlecome to the hard world of being responsible for your fellow co-workers, you had power & with power comes responsability or so I've heard of...

To be fair though, in Canada, it's nearly impossible to fire people once you get past the first 3 months unless they do something horrible, like punch a co-worker. Getting rid of bad workers is part of the job, and it's also one of the hardest parts because of the way the laws are here.

[GameGod]

@Gold_Ultima

I do agree that "Getting rid of bad workers is part of the job" but these laws were created with one goal, to stop the abuses from the employer, because he is the one with the power & such laws had to be made to defend workers, when you don't have these laws & your employer ( & every other one) starts asking to work round the clock, during week-ends, asks for sexual favors from women workers otherwise he "gets rid of" the non complient workers, then come back talk to me. Humans are wolves to other humans!

[BigLord]

This is so sad to read. It's like watching a train wreck in a written format.

I hope I never EVER have to go through that. Telling 143 people, 143 friends, that "I'm sorry... you're all fired"... Omg I can't imagine how hard it can be

[Chased]

This story makes me sad because they are responsible for one of my most favourite games of all time, Second Sight!

God bless you, people! I wish you the best in life!

And thank you for that awesomely awesome game!

[varoennauraa]

If only they would have made Time Splitters 4 for Wii.