Last week when Electronic Arts confirmed that it would be closing Pandemic Studios and letting go a majority of its employees, an internal memo confirmed “that the Pandemic brand and franchises will live on" and that new titles based on Pandemic franchises will be announced "in the months ahead.” As it turns out, it took only days for the next title announcement in Mercs Inc., the third game in the Mercenaries franchise.
“We are very excited to announce a new installment in the popular Mercenaries series because it demonstrates our continued commitment to Pandemic’s rich catalogue of intellectual properties,” said Nick Earl, Senior VP and Group General Manager at EA. “From the studio at EALA, a core creative team is forging new ground and conceptualizing new ideas for this exciting franchise.”
EA has tried to ingratiate themselves to gamers over the past couple years with new core IPs like Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge and Army of Two, trying to dispel their image as a heartless corporate game factory. By gutting Pandemic then turning around and immediately announcing a game from their primary franchise in a release indicating that Pandemic Studios made the announcement, they may have undone what good will they’ve built up.
