insider source later confirmed to Eurogamer that the unlock codes were from the original game likely for testing or press versions and that the easter egg had only ever been intended to cover the first two levels; however, the fastest way to include those levels was to include the full story mode, with a "soft-lock" in place. Dambuster only realised there was a way to unlock the full game after Homefront shipped. In another easter egg, this time within the November 2020 "Fallen God" expansion for SpellForce 3, published by THQ Nordic, whose parent company, the Embracer Group, acquired the rights to TimeSplitters in 2018, players found an item for sale by an in-game vendor named "TimeSplitters 2 Remake." The item contained the following in-game blurb:"It’s finally coming! The iconic shooter, which has stood the test of time to join the era of modern games."This led to speculation that the company were planning to release this remake as a genuine product; however, a spokesperson for THQ Nordic confirmed that the item was "just an innocent Easter egg" and the vendor was "a character known especially for not telling the truth." A subsequent statement from THQ stated that:"The intention behind those easter eggs was pure fun. When Koch Media and Deep Silver are ready to talk about TimeSplitters, they will make sure to get heard." Untitled TimeSplitters game In August 2018, Koch Media, a subsidiary of THQ Nordic AB, announced that they had acquired the intellectual property and publishing rights for TimeSplitters, with the intention of publishing future games in the series via their Deep Silver publishing company. In August 2019, THQ Nordic announced in their financial report that Steve Ellis had joined the company to "help plot the future course for [the TimeSplitters] franchise." Ellis stated that the series' "time has now come" and expressed hopes that "the original team will join hands again." Later that month, Dambuster Studios, which includes several former Free Radical staff members, replied to a fan on Twitter, confirming that Ellis had a team "handling the next TimeSplitters product." The series' other creator, David Doak, confirmed in an interview that he "isn't directly involved with this new interpretation," but expressed a desire to see it return as a "social experience", rather than a traditional boxed-game product. On 20 May 2021, Deep Silver announced via Twitter that it was reforming Free Radical Design as a new