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[caption id="attachment_2960" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Bring out yer dead!"]
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Seems that EA has had enough of Pandemic Studios and have kicked them out of their bed like a cheap 2 dollar whore after a long night of bourbon and coke. As of today Pandemic Studios, makers of Star Wars Battlefront, the Mercenary series and the developer for the upcomming game The Saboteur is no more. The employee death toll? 200.
We here at 4PP had a lot of time with The Sabotuer at PAX 2009 and have spoken highly of it since then. No word has come as to the fate of this game but its most probably going to be turned over to in-house EA developers so its unknown what effect, if any, this will have on the final release.
Its always sad to see a studio close down. Its especially moving since I had a chance to talk to the developers quite a bit during that weekend. They had a very genuine excitement for the experience they were putting together and I certainly feel for them having it ripped out of their hands in such a way. I'm sure the core development talents behind Pandemic will move on and create another studio in the near future and I look forward to see what they bring us.
We should also note that if this is the way EA treats the companies it absorbs, then we should fear for what they may do to the other companies they currently have in their possession. Remember, Bioware is now owned by EA.
We shall see.
-Joseph-
Comments
14 years, 7 months ago
Pisses me off. I really liked the first Mercenarys and both of the Star Wars Battlefronts games. Sucks that this happened. I hope the Saboteur will turn out good still.
14 years, 7 months ago
One word- DICKHEADS! >:|
14 years, 7 months ago
It really is a shame. 200 people out of jobs right around Thanksgiving, and Christmas, thats pretty sad.
14 years, 7 months ago
WTF! I loved the star wars battlefront!
14 years, 7 months ago
I still loved Destroy All Humans 1 & 2 because they made something that had a lot of destructive features that was a bit creative. Also the humor was great.
14 years, 7 months ago
Tis a shame. Hopefully Saboteur isn't tainted by all this..
14 years, 7 months ago
Man...I loved both Battlefronts and was interested in Saboteur. This is a bad decision and even worse timing.
14 years, 7 months ago
We can't forget that just last week (if I am not mistaken) EA announced it would be changing its strategy to a more Activision-like business model, in that they will focus on big name, strong selling IPs and move away from riskier (read: creative, new, interesting) titles in development.
EA was just starting to redeem itself for me, and they go and poo it all up!
14 years, 7 months ago
That's really sad. I'm hoping the Saboteur isn't affected by the Pandemic Studio's closing. I'm really looking forward to playing it, and I hope it doesn't affect the game either.
14 years, 7 months ago
First Free Radical Design, now Pandemic, Rebellion Studios better make my Star Wars Battlefront 3 on a damn console of course.
14 years, 7 months ago
@psylah: That change in philosophy also resulted in huge financial losses. You can't blame them really.
This recently happened to Ensemble Studios, so it isn't like this kind of thing is unheard of or EA is some evil anomaly when it comes to handling studio closures. You don't even need to start thinking about Bioware, they are much more successful than Pandemic has been.
14 years, 7 months ago
This makes me feel like boycotting EA. If only boycotts ever worked in the gaming industry. And if only Brutal Legend wasn't published by EA..
14 years, 7 months ago
For many years these guys were one of my favorite developers. I loved what they were able to do with games, like Mercenaries. I was personally looking forward to Saboteur, and what Pandemic would do with it. And now EA has shut them down. Even if Saboteur does get passed off to another developer, it won't be the same type of game. Pandemic had a vision for that game, and they should have been allowed to complete it. Now, Saboteur may not be the game we were all expecting it to be. And besides that, an excellent developer has been dismantled. It's a god damn shame.