Not content with Interactive's recent financial disappointments, have today added salt to the wound by confirming that they've snapped-up the rights to publish TimeSplitters 3 - a series which made its former home at the Wimbledon-based publisher. The popular franchise is developed by Nottingham's Free Radical, and the official press release confirmed that the new title will be released next year - probably on the three major consoles (assuming haven't simply bought the by then).

With EA now at the TimeSplitters helm, it is widely expected the vast potential of this first-person series will come to fruition, thanks to EA's unquestionable marketing and branding skills.

"Free Radical has proven itself as a world-class studio by delivering consistently beautiful, exciting and incredibly fun games," commented EA's Frank Sagnier. "We are thrilled to be working with and to be adding a new title to our growing catalogue of externally developed games."

Hopefully we'll get further details on the game itself soon.

By Luke Guttridge