The studio accountable for The Simpsons: Hit & Run and Prototype, Radical Leisure, seems to be again below a brand new title: New Radical Video games.
An amalgamation of “Radical Leisure plus Hothead Video games,” the studio’s new web site says, “it began with Radical Leisure again in 1991. Quick ahead to 2025 and we now have amassed invaluable expertise alongside the way in which. We all know the way to seize the essence of world-class mental properties, and ship licensed video games that delight followers all over the place.”
Vancouver-based Radical was purchased by Activision in 2008, and was shuttered little greater than 5 years later after residing out its closing years as a Future assist studio. Hothead — additionally primarily based in Vancouver — went bankrupt in 2024. The brand new studio is led by CEO Ian Wilkinson, who co-founded Radical, and COO Tim Bennison, who served as chief working officer at Capcom’s Vancouver studio and had beforehand labored at Radical, too, as govt producer and VP expertise.
Information of the brand new studio from the individuals who introduced us video games like Prototype, Scarface: The World Is Yours, and The Simpsons: Hit & Run has clearly excited followers, with many now crossing their fingers that the brand new outfit could possibly be set on bringing these dormant IPs again to life.
“I LITERALLY JUST TALKED ABOUT THIS IN A THREAD ABOUT WHAT DEV STUDIOS WE WOULD REVIVE IF WE WERE RICH A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO!! HOLY S***!! I WILLED THIS INTO EXISTENCE!! I’M A GOD!!” exclaimed one very excitable fan.
“Just a few months in the past, rumors began going round a couple of Prototype remaster. At present, Radical video games has seemingly relaunched and their web site prominently shows their older titles together with Prototype and Simpsons Hit & Run,” teased one other.
Late final yr, IGN reported that followers thought they’d uncovered proof that 2009 motion sport Prototype could possibly be getting a brand new lease of life. Whereas the sport has largely remained dormant on Steam since its launch 16 years in the past, eagle-eyed followers noticed a flurry of updates behind the scenes through SteamDB, in addition to a revealing datamine effort that has found a mysterious change to the sport’s credit that provides in remaster studio, Iron Galaxy, and a curious reference to Ubisoft Join.
That is not all, although. “So one of many OG modders for the sport information mined the latest replace and has discovered numerous fascinating issues,” a fan defined on the sport’s subreddit. “For Prototype 1, they’ve added some check maps and fairly a number of new names within the credit. There is likely to be some hope for a remaster in any case.”
This is not, in fact, proof {that a} remaster is truly taking place — proper now, we’re purely happening vibes and crossed fingers — however New Radical should have been established to work on one thing, so hold these fingers crossed!
Requires an official Simpsons: Hit and Run remake have equally cropped up sometimes within the 20+ years because the authentic’s launch, however it appears an unlikely challenge. In 2021 we spoke to Simpsons author Matt Selman who mentioned that whereas he “would like to see a remastered model of [Simpsons Hit & Run]“, it might be “an advanced company octopus to attempt to make that occur.”
For extra, discover out precisely the place we positioned The Simpsons: Hit & Run in our rundown of the most effective, worst, and weirdest Simpsons video games.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, in addition to a critic, columnist, and marketing consultant with 15+ years expertise working with a number of the world’s largest gaming websites and publications. She’s additionally a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually Excessive Chaos. Discover her at BlueSky.