After being reduced almost to nothing under Activision, Canadian developer Radical Entertainment has returned under a new name.
Even if you’re not familiar with the name Radical Entertainment, you’ve probably at least heard of the studio’s work. Based in Vancouver, it had been making games since the early 90s but is most famous for a string of fondly remembered 2000s titles, including GTA clone The Simpsons: Hit & Run, the surprisingly good Scarface game that served as a sequel to the original movie, and edgy superhero adventure Prototype.
Unfortunately, Radical was acquired by Activision in 2008 and though it was never technically shut down, it may as well have been after the studio was gutted in 2012, following the commercial failure of Prototype 2. According to a 2022 report by XboxEra, only six employees remain and who knows if they’re even still there after the Microsoft buyout and the last two years of layoffs.
Considering the studio’s last credit is as a support team on the original Destiny in 2014, it’s fair to say Radical’s been effectively dead for the last 12 years. That’s why it’s surprising to see the studio be resurrected independently from Activision and with near enough the same name.
Now dubbed New Radical Games, a new website for the studio was only recently discovered, with a promise of ‘handcrafted games built by a crew of industry veterans.’
Interestingly, the new studio is built from the ashes of two studios: Radical Entertainment and Hothead Games, another Canadian studio founded in 2006 by former Radical staff. Radical CEO Ian Wilkinson joined as Hothead’s CEO in 2009, although after a string of mobile games, the studio filed for bankruptcy in 2024.
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Wilkinson is back as CEO of New Radical Games, with Hothead chief operating officer Tim Bennison also retaining his position. Bennison used to work at the original Radical too, as an executive producer and VP of technology.
The website doesn’t indicate if New Radical is working on anything at the moment. In fact, the studio seems to be shopping for work as it’s offering its services for full time game development and co-development on console and mobiles games, ports, and remasters.
Obviously, fans of Radical will most want to see re-releases of the studio’s licensed games, like The Simpsons: Hit & Run and The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (both of which are proudly displayed on the website), though those would require an agreement from whoever owns the rights (aka Disney).
Intriguingly, New Radical’s emergence comes only months after it was rumoured that a Prototype remaster was in the works. Back in September, the Steam version of the game quietly received new updates, which naturally made fans suspicious considering it was 16 years old at that point.
According to datamining efforts shared to the Prototype subreddit, modders gained access to some new test maps and the game’s credits had been updated to include a bunch of new names, including developer Iron Galaxy.
As a reminder, Iron Galaxy was lead developer on Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 remake and has served as a support studio on other remasters, such as the ones for The Last Of Us Part 2 and Metroid Prime.
The updated credits also make mention of a ‘Ubisoft Connect Version’ as well as many members of staff across Activision, which strongly suggests something is happening.
The two Prototype games were basically spiritual successors to The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, but with an edgelord protagonist instead of a licensed superhero.
Although the second game was better, neither was especially good, so it seems surprising that Activision would want to bring them back after all this time, if that is in fact what’s happening.
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