Ex-Free Radical boss sets up new studio News • News • Eurogamer.net

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Zinkyzonk to make Facebook games.

David Doak, the former boss of Haze and TimeSplitters developer Free Radical, has set up a brand new studio.

It's called Zinkyzonk and will specialise in making games for Facebook, according to Develop.

Steve Ellis, who helped co-found Free Radical, is also involved with the new project.

Free Radical's last game was Haze, a futuristic shooter for PS3. It didn't do so well with the critics - the game scored just 4/10 on Eurogamer, for example, and it failed to set the charts alight. The studio shut down in December.

Remember how good TimeSplitters was though?

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Comments (16) Latest comment 3 years ago

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Pirotic #1 3 years ago

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Are they not Crytek UK now?
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JohnnyWashnGo #2 3 years ago

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Games for Facebook?

How the mighty have fallen.
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Cyclone #3 3 years ago

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They are indeed Pirotic. Surely Free Radical/Crytek UK are more notable for Second Sight than Haze though, at least in the minds of fans of many/most gamers? Granted Haze is noteworthy as something of a flop, but I would imagine that Timesplitter series and Second Sight are primarily what the studio are noted for. That, and being founded by a couple of members of the dev team of Goldeneye.
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Eraser #4 3 years ago

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lol, there's a lot of EA hate in the Timesplitters 3 review comments. Oh how times have changed...
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MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #5 3 years ago

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Zinkyzonk?

Man, somebody's spent 9 months at home watching nothing but CBeebies.
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mkreku #6 3 years ago

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Did anyone ever play Haze? Was it really that bad?
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Xerx3s #7 3 years ago

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"Are they not Crytek UK now? "

I guess that Crytek had no need for them and brought in their own management.
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Goodfella #8 3 years ago

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@ mkreku

Yes, it really was pretty bad.
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kinky_mong #9 3 years ago

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@Eraser: It was deserved though. EA's contribution to Timesplitters 3 screwed it up royally. I remember how disappointed I was with that game after Timesplitters 2 was my favourite FPS of that generation.
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schnide #10 3 years ago

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Why does Doak still need a job? He was a digitized character in GoldenEye on N64, one of the greatest games ever made - surely he can lay back in a pile of money, while maidens lick his balls like waves gently lapping at the shore?

What do you mean real life doesn't work like that?
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wewillselfdestruct #11 3 years ago

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What was EA's contribution to Timesplitters 3? Other than publishing it obviously.
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BiffTanner #12 3 years ago

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Xerx3s

I believe shortly before crytek bought them up a few of the top guys just left to form another company rather than wait to find out if anyone would actually buy them.
What a way to go though, a couple of guys who worked on goldeneye who prob still have some good game ideas working on facebook game, what a shame
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makeamazing #13 3 years ago

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Doesnt sound like a fun job to me... not a fan of slowbook... i mean facebook.
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Andee #14 3 years ago

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I thought Ellis and Doak set up Pumpkin Beach a while back, what happened to that?
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max #15 3 years ago

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wewillselfdestruct: What was EA's contribution to Timesplitters 3? Other than publishing it obviously.

Anal rape, basically.
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coolbritannia #16 3 years ago

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scuffpuppy, I concur. but unlike the masses, I hated the timesplitters games. hey, anyone see a siberian dam facility just blew up....remind you of anything?
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