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According to gaming blog Kotaku's "sources close to the situation," Electronic Arts is shutting down developer Pandemic Studios. Though unconfirmed, Kotaku's sources say the announcement to Pandemic's employees was planned for some time this morning.
Pandemic brought us Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars: Battlefront and upcoming stealth-action game The Saboteur. It has been around since 1998, first as an independent studio and later as an arm of Electronic Arts. EA bought the company in 2007, and since then, Pandemic has mainly trafficked in poorly received or ill-fated projects, including a canceled Dark Knight game once in development at Pandemic, Brisbane, which has since been closed as well.
We've seen game The Saboteur, and it looks amazing, for the record. Speaking of, Kotaku reports that The Saboteur IP will be passed onto EA's Montreal studio, the office behind Army of 2.
Update: The layoffs have been confirmed, but that doesn't mean Pandemic, as a brand, is dead. In a memo quoted by Kotaku, Nick Earl, EA Games Label Senior Vice President, wrote "I want to make it clear that the Pandemic brand and franchises will live on... In the months ahead, we will announce plans for new games based on Pandemic franchises."
Source: Kotaku
Comments
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BenLakeC
well... we can only hope some developers start a new company or at least find work at a third party EA CAN'T buy, which i know there are few but one can only pray some of the best third person shooter makers find a new home and at least find a way to return to some franchises... maybe Ubisoft will let some of them in, or any random UK or Japanese dev. group, i.e. Lionhead, MediaMolecule. etc., as for now though let us give a moment of silence for the final vision of that great gas mask *cues bagpipes*
AnomalyOfMax
EA=Satan
darthernie
so no battlefront 3????!!!
DaBigFatCow
Pandemic was great from 1998 - 2005. They made some of my most favoured games. Destroy All Humans, Mercenaries, StarWars Battlefront 1 and 2. Then EA bought them and their quality crashed. Just like what happens with all of EA's companies they buy. (Excluding BioWare, BioWare is still amazing luckily) This saddens me that such a once great developer is gone. However it almost makes me happy that EA is putting them out of their missory due to their recient not great games. Hopefully they can me rememebered for all the great games they made.
waverat81
@bolo73
You make a good point, but keep in mind. Pandemic was part of a package deal with Bioware.
I haven't seen any Bioware games go downhill since then, they seem to be getting better with each new release.
bolo73
This seems to happen with so many wonderful independent gaming houses. They make good/great game(s). Get bought out. Tell us this is the best thing every, like more resources, more advertising of there product. Some/a lot of the staff that together help make the indie game house great are moved to all over creation or fired. Them the crappy games start coming then the once great indie game house now a shell of it's no more or the games still rock like Ages of empire 3 but they are shut down reguardless.
TheTenthNazgul
One thing about SW BF III, was that it wasn't being developed by Pandemic anyway. It was under development at Free Radical Design, who made all Timesplitters games (loved them all) and a few other IPs. When Free Radical closed it was rumored to be being developed by Pandemic but they denied the rumor. The studio Rebellion is the other studio rumored to be working on SW BF III, and they have not said anything about the rumor, so lets all pray!
Pandemic better not close just to add that. They make amazing games that caught my attention when I played SW BF 1. Followed them ever since and loved them.
Dr_Mindbender
I love Full Spectrum Warrior :( I hope some other company pirates this style of gameplay.
mm542
so wait is there going to be a battlefront 3...I saw the youtube clip of the game and it looks out of this world literally...
waverat81
Here's the thing, many of us may feel they made a lot of great games, but the only opinion that matters to EA is $$$$. They are a business so you can't really fault them for that. It seems EA didn't feel they were living up to the investment they (EA) made on them. It's unfortunate for those that may lose their jobs because of it, but that's life.
All we can hope for is something positive will come out of this in some way.
guitarded77
Looks like some workers and projects x and y will be absorbed by EALA.. maybe some disgruntled employee will leak info on them.
Johnbegood
That sucks. Star Wars Battlefront 1 & 2 were my favorite games for the ps2. I was still hoping for a 3rd from them.
Memu
That is really sad. I have played a lot of games through the years with that familiar gas mask on them. But I can't blame EA for moving operations out of CA given the current economic mess.
JDarkley
Oh come on, EA! This studio has done some damn good work, and now you're just going to end it like this? Screw you guys, then. For the record, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is easily one of the best Star Wars game s of all time. Here's hoping that the guys in Pandemic will go on to other studios and continue to make great games.
RedSigma677
Well we can say goodbye to Star Wars Battlefront 3,these people where great they made Destroy all humans 1 and 2 awsome games and SW-battlefront 1 and 2 also great games.
Metalstorm98
this is sad...
redsoxfan67
mercs 3 or battlefront 3 wont be the same without pandemic developing it but the saboteur looks great and i plan on buying it
Murdering Robot
SW: Battlefront was the reason I bought an XBOX. Mercenaries2 was the reason I bought an X360. I know EA has said there will be a Mercs3, but who knows what it will look like without Pandemic.
SG_17
I hope they don't close! If they do, there will never be another good Star Wars: Battlefront game again.
That is unless DICE gets a hold of the license.
DreamingDarklyRobin
No! I want Battlefront 3 dammit or a GOOD Mercenaries game!
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