When Rare was acquired by Microsoft back during the beginning of the GameCube era, fellow UK studio Free Radical stepped in and released TimeSplitters 2 on the new Nintendo system within the same year.

It looked, played and felt like a Rareware first-person shooter and that's because Free Radical was founded by former Rare employees who were all involved in the development of GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64. One of the co-founders included Steve Ellis, who is credited as a co-creator of the TimeSplitters IP.

In an interesting development, Ellis has now joined THQ Nordic, following Deep Silver's acquisition of the TimeSplitters IP last August. The plan? To "plot the future course" for the series. Here's the announcement from THQ's latest financial report:

Last year Deep Silver acquired the much-loved TimeSplitters IP. We’re delighted to announce that one of the series’ creators, Steve Ellis, has joined us to help plot the future course for this franchise.

TimeSplitters 2 was a multiplatform release and was followed by TimeSplitters: Future Perfect in 2005. A fourth entry in the series never saw the light of day and Ellis even said in 2013 he didn't think it would happen.

While we wait for Steve to plot the future course for this franchise, tell us in the comments if you would be interested in revisiting TimeSplitters and if you think there's a chance of a new entry appearing on a Nintendo platform.