THQ Nordic Acquires Timesplitters Series

The publishers at THQ Nordic have been on a roll lately. They've set Darksiders III for a holiday release; they've acquired Deep Silver and snagged the rights to the Metro and Saints Row franchises; and now, they've gotten a series that is near and dear to the hearts of many old-school first-person shooter fans.

In a press release published this evening, the publisher has confirmed that it has acquired the rights to the TimeSplitters trilogy, including the original game that first came out for PS2; the sequel that followed on multiple platforms; and the third chapter, the much-enjoyed Future Perfect.

The series made huge waves back in the PS2/GameCube/Xbox era, mainly due to its rock solid first-person shooting tactics and its bizarre (yet wildly enjoyable) sense of humor.

"Timesplitters was largely considered as one of the most influential console games of the early 2000's. The three game series earned a large and passionate fan base thanks to its unique humour, art style and pop culture references while encouraging customization and modification to give each person their own individual experience. Timesplitters was originally created by the development studio Free Radical Design that later became Deep Silver Dambuster, part of the THQ Nordic group," the company noted in its press release.

In addition, it's also gotten the rights to the horror/stealth game Second Sight, which was initially released for consoles back in 2004 by Codemasters, developed by Free Radical Design -- the same team behind Timesplitters.

Now, THQ Nordic hasn't announced any plans on what it intends to do with these games, but there are two distinct possibilities, both of which are very likely.

The first is a remastered release of the TimeSplitters and Second Sight games. The company loves its remasters, as it's proven with the Darksiders games and Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered, which came out earlier this summer. So it's a pretty safe bet that we'll be seeing HD ports of these, though the question is when.

But then there's the big question -- could we see a TimeSplitters 4? We've seen some concept art from the game in the past, but nothing's been made official yet. Considering that Free Radical Design would later become Deep Silver Dambuster, the team that brought us Homefront: The Revolution (which, by the way, has a nifty little TimeSplitters themed Easter egg with classic levels), it's a huge possibility that THQ could line up a future entry in this series as their next project. And maybe with a crazy, similar design.

No word has been given yet, but this has potential to be huge for the publisher, as we'd see the return of a first-person shooting franchise that hasn't made waves since Future Perfect came out in 2005. A re-release with HD visuals and possible multiplayer features would hit the spot. It's about...time?

We'll let you know once THQ Nordic confirms any plans. In the meantime, fingers crossed the cat racing challenge returns. Just...watch below.