TimeSplitters 4 footage has appeared online

The TimeSplitters series from developers Free Radical Design is one of the most beloved first-person shooters of yesteryear and fans would love nothing more than to see its triumphant return.

The first game in the series was TimeSplitters in 2000 for PlayStation 2. Sure, it wasn't a perfect game, but it was a lot of fun jumping into its multiplayer modes to play locally with friends on the couch. When its sequel arrived in 2002 for PlayStation 2, the original Xbox and Nintendo GameCube it built upon the predecessor's formula in an epic game that garnered a score of 90 on the aggregate website Metacritic earning the “Must-Play” accolade.

Check out the TimeSplitters: Future Perfect trailer below!

When the third game in the series arrived in 2005, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, it arguably wasn't as good as the first sequel, but in fairness, it was always going to be a tall ask to improve on that formula. That being said, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect was still a lot of fun whether you played the single-player campaign or its multiplayer. Sadly, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect would be the last entry in this cult classic series and nearly two decades later, fans are desperate to see a fourth game.

In May 2021, TimeSplitters 4 was officially announced with original members of the development team on board, and it was to be released on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The original Free Radical Studio was closed in 2009 and then revived and funded by Embracer Group in 2021 to spearhead TimeSplitters 4. Sadly, not long after TimeSplitters 4 was announced to the world bringing joy to fans, the project was cancelled. Worst still, its newly revived Free Radical Design studio was closed down leaving its employees out of work.

We can only wonder how good TimeSplitters 4 may have been, I guess we’ll never know for sure. However, in an odd turn of events, a prototype version of TimeSplitters 4 has appeared online following an eBay listing, of all places. As reported by TheLoadout.com, the very early prototype build is for the PlayStation 3 and it was shared on Reddit by user Flimsy-Zebra-3775. That being said, we should take the word of this prototype with a pinch of salt in the unlikely event that its existence is officially confirmed.

The prototype was discovered on a PlayStation 3 console and if comments are to be believed in the thread, this console may have been previously owned by someone who used to work at Free Radical Design. If true, it seems that someone had forgotten to delete the TimeSplitters 4 prototype build. What’s more, apparently the prototype is playable.

“I asked the [eBay] seller a lot of probing questions without giving it away, they indeed had a friend who worked at Free Radical until November 2008 before the studio [originally] shut down,” claimed Flimsy-Zebra-3775.

At this stage, considering that TimeSplitters 4 has seemingly been cancelled twice in two different console generations, it’s unlikely that we’ll see the project revived for a third time. However, I really hope that I am wrong.