TimeSplitters 4 Was Axed Because It Had Too Much Content

Former Free Radical developers, Steve Ellis and Karl Hilton, revealed that TimeSplitters 4 was shot down by different publishers’ marketing departments because they weren’t able to sum up its diverse characters and environments in a simple ad campaign.

“A small playable demo was shown to several publishers, but it didn’t attract any publishing deals,” Ellis explained. “We pitched [Timesplitters] to a lot of publishers, and from each of them we got the same two responses. Firstly, they would ask what happened with Haze. We were the company that made a series of high-rated shooters and then we had released Haze, which wasn’t as well received. This worried them.”

“Secondly, their marketing person would say something along the lines of, ‘I don’t know how to sell this.’ The unanimous opinion among all publishers that we pitched TimeSplitters 4 to is that you can’t market a game that is based around a diverse set of characters and environments – you need a clear and easily communicated marketing message, and TimeSplitters doesn’t have one.”

“Perhaps they are all right,” s'est-il interrogé. “Perhaps this is why the previous games in the series achieved much more critical success than commercial success. For these reasons, one by one they all declined to sign the project.”