a more straightforward shooter whose pace would suit the new console's power, and which could be developed in time for the PlayStation 2's delayed launch date. The team approached the project with the intent of increasing not just pace, but also the quantity/variety of enemies compared to GoldenEye and Perfect Dark. In the words of David Doak:"Steve [Ellis, lead programmer] got something up and running really quickly. I think Sony were really impressed; their experience had been that people would take six months, eight months, a year to get anything working at all on PS2. It was down to Steve's technical ability: he had a first-person thing up and running fairly quickly."In October 2000, following initial development under the working title of MPG (Multiplayer Game), the completed TimeSplitters became Free Radical's first game release, and was the only PlayStation 2 launch title developed in Europe. This was followed directly by TimeSplitters 2 in October 2002, which was developed in less than two years and released simultaneously for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. Like its predecessor, TimeSplitters 2 was published by Eidos Interactive. Eidos had originally stated that they would not support a GameCube version, claiming it "had no relationship with Nintendo"; however, they reversed that decision once Free Radical offered the publishing rights to Activision. David Doak described TimeSplitters 2 as "what we thought the first game should have been ... all the ideas we’d had along the way." This included strengthening the single-player mode, which had received criticism for its lack of depth in the multiplayer-focused original. Development for the sequel had begun the very next day after the game was completed in September 2000, and would ultimately include enhancements such as a new animation system and improved special effects. TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (2003–2005) In 2003, a decision was made for Eidos to part ways with Free Radical. Following this, the team were approached by Electronic Arts, who said that they "love the TimeSplitters series and they wanted to get involved with it." In January 2004, EA announced that it would be publishing the series' third entry in the following year, promising "improved gameplay functions, completely revamped graphics, a wholly original storyline and all-new online play". The game's development team felt that the questions asked by EA during the early stages of its development helped them to refine their process, providing a "fresh approach which encouraged us to focus