IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Rumor: Pandemic Stamped Out?

Posted November 17, 2009 by David Radd

Update: EA has confirmed the news. Pandemic is closing its physical doors, but the brand and some franchises will live on. Here's the full story. 

Original story:

While previous reports had stated that Pandemic would suffer losses during EA’s plans to cut back 1,500 employees and cancel over a dozen games, it was unclear how much the developer would be affected by the cutbacks. Today, Kotaku is reporting that Pandemic will be completely shut down.

Citing internal sources, the report says that nearly 200 workers at Pandemic’s Los Angeles studio will be told at 11 AM PT that they are being let go. The few remaining employees will be integrated into other EA development teams. All remaining projects at Pandemic (such as The Saboteur) will be moved over to Army of Two developers EA Montreal studio.  An official announcement of this closure is expected later today.

Pandemic’s history prior to the EA purchase of VG Holdings includes hit releases like Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars: Battlefront, Destroy All Humans!, and Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. Since being acquired by EA, Pandemic Los Angeles put out the underperforming Mercenaries 2: World in Flames and The Lord of the Rings: Conquest while Pandemic Brisbane was closed after a series of managerial mistakes and the cancellation of The Dark Knight game.

David Radd has worked as a gaming journalist since 2004 at sites such as GamerFeed, Gigex and GameDaily Biz.