Fan interest in the TimeSplitters series needs to be higher if publisher Crytek is to consider another game, the company's boss has said.

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli pointed to an struggling fan petition to get the series re-released in HD.

"Unfortunately the petition doesn't look that convincing," Yerli told Game Informer. "If the petition picks up it will be an even better argument for us."

Yerli himself is a TimeSplitters fan, and previously appealed via Twitter to guage widespread interest in a sequel or re-make. This prompted a concerted fan campaign for work to resume on the in-limbo TimeSplitters 4. After that failed to gain enough attention, attention shifted to calls for a TimeSplitters 2 HD remake.

"I would love to see the game out there, as a newborn HD version or what not," Yerli continued. "I definitely would love to see it. But the case of turning this into a business decision is still difficult, despite the fact that there was a Twitter request feed to test the waters.

"And now the petition, it just seems to be as we expected, as it was when it was Free Radical... They're trying to call 300,000 voices, I think it's at two or three thousand right now. If they could get the petition together I would be very happy to put in front of decision makers in the company, the key stakeholders, and say, 'Look here. This is how it is, let's make it now.'"

Crytek has owned the TimeSplitters IP since it bought British developer Free Radical Design, creator of the TimeSplitters series, in 2009, saving it from the jaws of administration.

Re-named Crytek UK, current studio members still want to make a TimeSplitters sequel. The developer has been kept busy in the meantime designing multiplayer portions of Crysis 2 and 3. A sequel to THQ's Homefront is also in the works.