The maker of Prototype and Simpsons: Hit and Run returns from the grave just months after an out-of-the-blue update broke Prototype's mods and added mysterious new credits

Alex Mercer attacking a mutant enemy with an elongated whip arm in Prototype. — (Image credit: Activision)

In news that will be deeply intriguing for a certain brand of rapidly-ageing millennial (me), it's looking more and more like that susurrus of a Prototype remaster from last year might actually bear fruit.

I say this because, as spotted by VGC, Prototype's original studio seems to have reforged itself in a new form. New Radical Games is, claims its website, a fusion of Radical Entertainment (Prototype, The Simpsons: Hit & Run, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction) and Hothead Games (Deathspank, episodes one and two of those Penny Arcade Adventures Games).

Radical co-founder Ian Wilkinson—who departed for Hothead in 2008—serves as CEO, while former Hothead COO Tim Wilkinson again takes up that title for New Radical. Hothead, perhaps ominously, went bankrupt in 2024, around the same time that New Radical seemingly first got off the ground, per Wilkinson's LinkedIn.

You might also recall that heady day-or-so when an entry for Scarface: The World Is Yours popped up on Steam, before its publisher suddenly yanked it back down because, whoops, it maybe hadn't quite worked out the licensing just yet. Honestly? I'm not sure that was anything but a series of very poor decisions, but if it's also tied to the Radical revival? Suits me. That Scarface game was better than it had any right to be.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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