Crytek denies TimeSplitters 4's existence

Better sit down, TimeSpitters fans. Despite recent rumors out of Xbox 360: The Official Xbox Magazine UK that Crytek is working on a sequel to its time-jumping FPS, the studio today confirmed to CVG that news of a TimeSplitters 4 have been greatly exaggerated.

“[We've] spent all of the development budget on buying monkeys,” quipped Crytek, bluntly adding, “No, it's not in development.”

The statement was a follow-up to a larger, more tongue-in-cheek response that read:

“For TimeSplitters 4, with ever spiraling 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?"

Word of TimeSplitters 4's development have been around for years. We were even reporting rumors of its existence back in 2007, before Crytek had changed its name from Free Radical Design (see: TimeSplitters 4 - first details). Read how we envision the series' (still possible?) return in TimeSplitters 4: Nine things it needs to do to guarantee a gleefully amazing sequel.

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.