New Studio Crash Labs formed from ex-Rare, Free Radical Developers

How excited would you be if I told you that some of the legendary talent between games like Timesplitters and GoldenEye 007 had broken off to form their own studio? How crestfallen would you be if I then immediately followed that up with the soul-crushing news that said studio would be making iPhone games?

Such was the news revealed today by GamesIndustry International, who revealed that the newly formed Crash Labs would consist of Rare and Free Radical alums working to develop games for the iOS platform, with three titles in production. The studio is headed by Steve Ellis, the man responsible for GoldenEye’s groundbreaking multiplayer mode. He also co-founded and served as managing director for Free Radical until 2009.

Joining Ellis will be Rare designer and producer Martin Wakeley, who worked on a number of games during Rare’s golden years, including Diddy Kong Racing, Jet Force Gemini, and Blast Corps. Lee Musgrave, who served as a 3D artist for a number of Rare titles including Perfect Dark, will also round out Crash Labs.

Regarding the announcement, Ellis said the following:

It’s an exciting time to be making games. It’s great to have thrown off the shackles of traditional console development and to be able to enjoy the creative freedom of working on titles without exhaustive development cycles.

We are working with some great people and we are looking forward to sharing more details of our exciting projects very soon.

Sure, it’s more than a little disappointing to find out that a team with such a pedigree is developing for a platform that isn’t exactly known for producing deep, substantial experiences. But let’s keep in mind that this is part of the team that proved that a multiplayer first-person shooter could work on a console. Here’s hoping they can make something worthwhile.