For those wondering what it would be like to play the cancelled 2008 PS3 demo of TimeSplitters 4 developed by the British studio Free Radical—which is an oddly specific thought—you’re in luck because it’s currently available to check out.
One Reddit user has single-handedly brought the FPS game back from the dead after they posted a picture of a PS3 devkit that they found on eBay, which turned out to have a cancelled PS3 demo of Free Radical’s TimeSplitters 4 on it.
“I asked the seller a lot of probing questions without giving it away; they indeed had a friend who worked at Free Radical until November 2008, a month before the studio shut down,” Reddit user Flimsy-Zebra3775 explained in a comment under their original post. “They are going to boot the game up at the weekend to see what it is and send me a video; if it’s legit, I’ll buy it, and if someone who knows HDD dumping helps me, I’ll upload the drive.”
The seller ended up booting into it and discovering that this was, in fact, a prototype from the 2008 cancelled version of TimeSplitters 4. After spending $672 (£525) for the console, Flimsy-Zebra3775 uploaded the prototype to Hidden Palace for all to see and download. “History secured,” they said.
If you scrolled through the Reddit thread, you’d see just how happy fans of the series were about this discovery. “At the very least, go on and take a bow,” one user said. “(Gif with applauds coming your way from us and the community, and we’ll throw in some roses for the Heck of it.) Go on now, take that bow.” Many others simply congratulated the buyer on making history and supporting video game preservation efforts.
David Doak, the founder and director of Free Radical, also responded to the rare find on Twitter. “This is exactly the kind of nonsense that <insert any publisher name> wasn’t interested in back in 2008.”
You can see what the PS3 demo had in store for players for yourself, or you can check out some of the various videos that have been uploaded to YouTube since the discovery. One TimeSplitters 4 YouTube video just involves one player up against several bots. The match takes place in the courtyard of a gothic castle that is tangled in tree roots. Futuristic and strangely spooky music accompanies the fight. While it isn’t the most captivating FPS game I’ve ever witnessed, it’s certainly a cool project and one that is well worth preserving.
Free Radical first developed TimeSplitters 4 in 2008 as a bizarre take on the traditional FPS formula, including strange character designs, massive online multiplayer, and elemental powers. Unfortunately, Free Radical went into administration in mid-December 2008, after the failure of its PS3 shooter Haze. Crytek bought Free Radical and moved its remaining staff to another studio. It took more than a decade for Free Radical—and TimeSplitters—to get another shot at life when it was reformed under Embracer, with some of the key staff returning. Unfortunately, TimeSplitters 4 was just as doomed the second time around, as Embracer shut down Free Radical in November.
Coincidentally this fantastic find by Flimsy-Zebra3775 isn’t the only buried TimeSplitters treasure to resurface this month. A former Free Radical Design developer recently showed off some footage of an in-progress TimeSplitters 2 remaster from July 2023, before Embracer closed the studio. But thanks to the closures, it looks like this odd PS3 TimeSplitters 4 demo from 2008 will be all fans can get a hold of for the time being.