Timesplitters Co-Creator Joins THQ Nordic for a Franchise Revival and Dead Island 2 Lives

In an announcement today, THQ Nordic revealed that Timesplitters creator Steve Ellis has returned to work on a revival of the franchise that he helped build. Formerly of Rare and Free Radical, Ellis returns to help relaunch Timesplitters, roughly a year after THQ Nordic first purchased the rights to the shooter series.

Previously, Crytek held the right to Timesplitters, when developer Free Radical filed for bankruptcy. Now, Steve Ellis is on board with whatever the revival of the Timesplitters franchise looks like from THQ Nordic. We've no idea whether the revival will be a sequel, a remake, or something else entirely.

But the hiring of Ellis wasn't the only announcement from THQ Nordic today. The long-awaited Dead Island 2, which has struggled through development for the last five years, is now being worked on by Dambuster Studios. Originally announced as being developed by Yager back in 2014 (after series creators Techland opted to create Dying Light for Warner Bros.), development was then passed to Sumo Digital in 2016. Three years on, and we've not seen anything from the sequel, but at least it's still alive.

Additionally, THQ Nordic has also acquired Gunfire Games, developers of the Darksiders series. While Darksiders 3 didn't thrill critics in 2018, Darksiders Genesis, a Diablo-esque take on the franchise, is currently in development from Gunfire Games, and will be published by THQ Nordic. Volition is also said to be deep into development on a new entry in the Saints Row franchise, which is good news for fans who haven't had a brand-new game in the series since 2015's Gat out of Hell.