A number of reports floating around the net were suggesting Free Radical (TimeSplitters, Haze) had closed its doors and was not allowing employees entry this week, however, an updated report from
Gamasutra has outlined that while the company is definitely in some serious financial trouble, the third-party brought in to help handle the situation is claiming it's all "business as usual".
"We have asked that almost all of the employees apart from a skeleton crew remain at home," said a representative from the resolvent company. "All employees have been paid up until the end of December and we hope to make another announcement before Christmas or very soon thereafter, but we must stress at this stage that it's business as usual."
After the uber-unsuccessful release of Haze (both commercially and
critically), and reports they [Free Radical] lost their Star Wars project with LucasArts, it's no wonder things are looking down. We'll keep an eye on the situation though, apart from all the bad, we can't forget these guys are the genius behind TimeSplitters.