Developer Free Radical is rumored to be shutting down. The company, best known for the TimeSplitters series, has been having financial difficulty. Things have gotten so bad, that it actually had to bar the doors. Gamasutra states that, "Initial reports claim that employees have been refused entry to the company’s Nottingham studio as confusion surrounds the company’s future."

Started by ex-Rare employees, Free Radical was something of a media darling in the early part of this decade. The feeling was that the company took Rare's best talent; people would often say that Free Radical was more Rare than Rare was back then. The company's latest game, Haze, was a major disappointment. To this day, I struggle to understand why Sony Europe made such an enormous push to acquire exclusivity for Haze....

Anyway, it's sad news to hear that Free Radical is shutting down. It's sadder when people show up for work, only to find that the overlords have put the place inlock down.

Source