Fans of TimeSplitters: Future Perfect will certainly be disappointed to discover that a fourth game in the series is not currently in development. The franchise made its third - and so far final - outing in 2005, across the Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2. The franchise, known for its time jumping gameplay, featured as a joke in Simon Pegg"s zombie-comedy film Shaun of the Dead in 2004, but the franchise seemingly is intending to remain on hiatus.
An interview with Computer and Videogames today resulted in a Crytek spokesperson explaining about the development process for TimeSplitters 4. Unfortunately, the game isn"t being worked on due to the company having "spent all of the development budget on buying monkeys". Those who have played the series will see the joke almost immediately. When asked for a serious answer the spokesperson simply stated that the franchise is not currently being worked upon. Rumors of a fourth game have been going for years now, but the most recent suggested that Crytek were working on the title for next-gen gaming consoles, such as a fourth PlayStation and third Xbox console.
Way back in 2007, Crytek even confirmed to CVG that work on the fourth game was underway, and released some tantalising concept art in 2008. Regrettably, nothing more was ever said, and cancellation became a popular rumor. At this moment in time you may well be very disappointed with Crytek for not acting with the franchise, but you can"t fault their fantastic press statement, which is as follows:
"For Timesplitters 4, with ever spiralling development costs, massive teams and endless crunch we decided on a more radical development strategy. In short, the experiment was to implement the infinite monkey theorem. With cloning being a far too expensive option, we spent all of the development budget on buying monkeys on the black market. Those seven monkeys are now sat in a room with typewriters and lots of mirrors, and we fully expect Timesplitters 4 to be finished soon. Rumours are that they haven"t written any code but just tease the press from time to time. Those damn monkeys.
PS: anyone got any bananas?"