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[Tiduz]

Source: Kotaku

Pandemic Studios - the developers behind Star Wars: Battlefront and Mercenaries - will today be closed down by owners Electronic Arts, according to several sources close to the situation.

It's not the first time we've heard this - far from it - but we had previously been unaware of the timing of the move.

Though still unconfirmed, according to our sources almost all of the studio's staff (around 200 people) in Los Angeles are to be laid off today, with those few remaining to be incorporated into other Electronic Arts development teams. The move is expected to be announced to Pandemic staff at 11 a.m. PT.

Pandemic were first formed in 1998, and for a while there, seemed to be on the verge of becoming one of the world's premier development houses. Following on from the success of Full Spectrum Warrior, Mercenaries and Star Wars: Battlefront, they were purchased in 2007 by Electronic Arts, where things should have been on the up and up.

Instead, the company released a succession of lacklustre sequels, and took a body-blow when Pandemic's Australian experiment failed following the cancellation of the costly - and doomed - Dark Knight game, which resulted in the closure of Pandemic's Brisbane studio.

It's believed Pandemic's remaining IP (including The Saboteur) will be passed onto EA's Montreal studio (Army of Two).

Remember, as of yet, this is all unconfirmed; we'd expect an official announcement on the closure later today.

Ouch, another one bites the dust?

 

[Solo]

Enjoyed the first Mercs, but otherwise, this news is nothing more than a fart in the wind to me.

 

[-x.Red.x-]

BATTLEFRONT!!!!

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

Sorta saw this coming. The studio has been struggling for some time, and having all their eggs in The Saboteur's basket didn't seem like the smartest thing. Sucks to see any dev shut down, though.

 

[Stumpokapow]

1) Battlefront licence; gone.
2) LOTR licence; gone.
3) Dark Knight / Batman licence; game got cancelled due to quality and scheduling issues
4) Mercs 2; underperformed
5) Saboteur; about to bomb
6) Multiple large teams, even more if you count the now-closed Brisbane studio
7) Teams in Australia, EA isn't in Australia. --- well actually I guess this isn't really true anymore since Brisbane got shitcanned.

EA is a company that releases blockbusters on a regular basis and has surprisingly few misses. Yet, they lose money hand over fist. Why? Well, headcount. When every studio has two or more teams, and many projects get canned, you have a whooooole lot of mouths to feed and checks to sign who are not working towards producing you revenue. This really is an obvious, logical, cut in a company that needs to make every obvious cut and more to become profitable.

I'm kinda surprised EA didn't can Saboteur in February when they shut down Pandemic Brisbane and axe the rest of Pandemic then.

Hopefully all the workers will bounce back.

 

[FHIZ]

Can't say I'm too surprised, but bummer man. The Saboteur looks pretty good.

 

[Hypereides]

Nooo! Now I wont get my Mercenaries 3 :,(

 

[Epic Fail Guy]

hahaha

That's what these assholes get for releasing Mercenaries 2. Justice served.

 

[Shiggy]

Delaying Saboteur for more than two years probably did not help

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

Another dev added to the slaughter pile. Man, this generation sucks

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

I've thought about this for a while.

Hard to make money as a company when you spend 2billion (I know Bioware was included) to buy a company that doesn't make hit games. Hopefully these guys land on their feet, but EA was never going to see a significant ROI from these guys, especially after cancelling TDK and Battlefront.

 

[archnemesis]

Sad to see them go. I was still secretly hoping for a sequel to Dark Reign 2.

 

[Darklord]

 

[gottalovetheglove]

To be honest - and I'll be saddened by the loss of many jobs before you lunge at me - Pandemic is a necessary casualty for EA. They've been bleeding money with huge amounts of staff and no really big hits for a long time. The Saboteur isn't going to sell well, we all know that, and personally I don't like how it looks so far from all the demos I've seen.

To cut losses, I really do think it'd be a necessary decision to make.

 

[Loxley]

They had so much potential starting out, but these last few years...I dunno : / Between Mercs 2 and LotR: Conquest, I can't say I considered them to be a premiere developer anymore.

I am however looking forward to The Saboteur. Hopefully they can go out on a good note.

 

[mysticstylez]

After Mercs 2 I'm not surprised at all by this.

 

[El-Suave]

Loved Full Spectrum Warrior and of course Mercenaries 1.
Lately the quality of their games wasn't quite there but I'd be shocked if they would be closed down so close after being bought.

 

[snoopeasystreet]

Sad news if true.

http://www.pandemicstudios.com/corp/currentprojects

They had 2 other projects other than saboteur under development. It's probably safe to assume that they were 2 of the 12 unannounced games cancelled by EA.

 

[infinityBCRT]

I think there were a number of issues with Saboteur:

A) They announced it WAY too early
B) The black & white visual thing might be a great artistic choice but I think that didn't fly with the mainstream media/gamers
C) They sent it out to die by releasing it now and with very little marketing.

 

[-PXG-]

hahaha

That's what these assholes get for releasing Mercenaries 2. Justice served.

Yeah, it's really funny when hard working people lose their jobs. :/

Spoiler

Your username and tag are fitting.

 

[Munin]

A shame. Mercenaries was hands-down my favourite game last gen.

 

[sohois]

This would be a real shame if they were still developing a SW:battlefron game, but as it is i can't say i'll shed too many tears over this. I thought the Saboteur did look decent though.

 

[Gamecocks625]

Sad news if this turns out to be true. I loved the first Battlefront and Mercenaries on the PS2. Pandemic is a talented bunch.

 

[MarkMclovin]

hahaha

That's what these assholes get for releasing Mercenaries 2. Justice served.

Oh man.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

hahaha

That's what these assholes get for releasing Mercenaries 2. Justice served.

Epic Fail Guy
Junior Member
(Today, 01:15 PM)
Reply | Quote

 

[fizzelopeguss]

They released pap, far superior studios have been shut down for less.

EA has just laid waste to canadian game development.

 

[Q8D3vil]

really sad
i enjoyed merc 2 coop alot

the funny thing i didnt encounter any of the mentioned bugs
i guess i was lucky

 

[bestami]

People losing jobs is always a sad news. With that said i have to say i enjoyed Mercenaries 2 more then saints row 2 and gta 4. I was really looking forward to the saboteur aswell. Shame.

 

[Shard]

I always got the impression that Pandemic was merely along for the ride when EA bought Bioware.

 

[FrankT]

So essentially $900 million plus for Bioware. smh Lucky if they ever make a return on that investment.

After this latest round of cuts being announced I seriously wondered how these guys would fare.

 

[Majima Everywhere System]

Yeah, it's really funny when hard working people lose their jobs. :/

"More Dead VZ Troops!"

I rented Mecenaries 2 and after hearing that line for the 5th time in under 2 minutes, I returned it days before it was due back. I like how someone said it underperformed in this thread. No, I think it performed like it should.

Also, I enjoyed how they lifted a mission from a Tony Hawk game. "Go get the Devastor and return to the base!" The Devastator was a pink scooter, lolz.

 

[cuyahoga]

7) Teams in Australia, EA isn't in Australia.

No, they've actually had a studio in Brisbane for awhile, which was turned into Visceral Games Australia earlier this year.

Delaying Saboteur for more than two years probably did not help

It was only a year as far as I could tell, but yeah. This was obviously going to happen after Saboteur was finished, though--the studio doesn't really contribute anything much to the bottom line.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Next on the chopping block:
EALA; Westwood's franchises are basically dead, Boom Blox can easily be transferred or given a downsized team, the other Spielberg project never really got into releasable shape. Huge cost, little money to be made.

Mythic: Keep the tech guys that are useful for the Star Wars MMO, axe everyone else, close DAoC and Warhammer Online. Sorry.

EA Montreal: Okay, so the "Wii exclusive content" strategy failed for you. There goes that team. Army of Two is definitely a growable regular franchise, though, so probably keep that team intact. Maybe just downsize this crew?

Consider downsizing:
BioWare: Many teams, all large, all working on long development cycle projects. To be fair, I'm sure every game they release in the end is profitable, but it's probably worth maybe cutting back a bit or geographically centralizing this team.

Definitely safe:
DICE: Tech wizards, profitable franchiseable games, games release on time and on a regular basis.
Redwood Shores
EA Sports

No, they've actually had a studio in Brisbane for awhile, which was turned into Visceral Games Australia earlier this year.

You're actually right about that but I think the point still holds; it's one thing to have your Eastern Europe / Southeast Asia studio for cost savings / QA / "internal outsourcing" but actually just having teams all over the world for shits and giggles probably creates unnecessary overhead and lowers production efficiency.

 

[Sipowicz]

not really that surprised or bothered.i dont think i've ever played any of their games

it was pretty dumb to pay so much money for them though, but that's EA for you

 

[Milk Lizard]

Well it's always sad when people gets fired but I can't say I will miss their games, at all.

 

[kamorra]

Nooooo ;(

 

[Gazunta]

Not enough in the world if true. Absolutely top guys. And the story in the OP left out Destroy All Humans and the fact Pando started out as an Aussie dev before moving over to LA.

Eat a dick, 2009.

 

[diarrhea_pangs]

hahaha

That's what these assholes get for releasing Mercenaries 2. Justice served.

Be a little more considerate.

On topic, This generation fuckin sucks Koala bear balls.

 

[Jacobi]

Um will The Saboteur get released?

 

[quinntendopower]

see ya later! i shed a tear for working designs whenever i see one i dont care about

 

[whatevermort]

I was really looking forward to the saboteur aswell. Shame.

You can still look forward to it, and still buy it - it's out in two weeks.

 

[Fersis]

hahaha

That's what these assholes get for releasing Mercenaries 2. Justice served.

Pro Tip: We dont party when lots of people lose their jobs.

 

[[Nintex]]

It won't be long before Activision can swoop in and buy the remnants of EA if they don't go bankrupt before that happens. The MS buy-out doesn't seem so bad now.

 

[crowphoenix]

Damn. The Sabateur looked amazing. If this is true, I hope those guys all land on their feet.

 

[Tashi]

bummer

 

[dskillzhtown]

Sucks, I really did like Full Spectrum Warrior and wanted one for the current gen. But more importantly it sucks that more people are losing jobs right before the holidays.

 

[eznark]

I kind of thought they already got closed.

Good luck to em.

 

[bryehn]

EA Montreal: Okay, so the "Wii exclusive content" strategy failed for you. There goes that team. Army of Two is definitely a growable regular franchise, though, so probably keep that team intact. Maybe just downsize this crew?

This team did (I think) come up with a great Wii engine at the very least. SSX Blur and Need for Speed Nitro both look/run great and despite its overall crappiness, Celebrity Sports Showdown did too.

There's definitely some talent there. Does this team work on HD content besides Army of Two?

 

[Akia]

How crazy would it be for EA if Saboteur was a smash hit?

 

[Shiggy]

I kind of thought they already got closed.

Good luck to em.

The Australian studio was closed earlier this year.