Pandemic Studios closes

Posted by Mister-X on November 18th, 2009 at 02:07am

In the wake of rumours hitting yesterday, and as part of EA’s recent round of layoffs and restructuring plans, it’s been announced that Pandemic Studios has been closed.

Responsible for games such as Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars: Battlefront, Mercenaries and the upcoming The Saboteur, Pandemic Studios was founded in 1998 by way of an equity investment by Activision. After opening a satellite studio in Brisbane, Australia in 2000, Pandemic entered a joint partnership with RPG stalwarts Bioware in 2005, with investment backing from Elevation Partners.

The game industry was rocked with the news in October of 2007 that EA was to acquire VG Holding Corp., the owners of both Pandemic and Bioware, in a deal worth over $800 million, effectively folding the two developers, and their significant line up of franchises, into the publisher while retaining the their brand and identity.

After Pandemic Australia was shut down earlier this year, and EA’s initial plans to cut a significant segment of its workforce, it sounded rocky but stable for the US-based developer, until the announcement last week that EA was to implement further strategic restructuring plans, which included the plan to cut 1500 jobs across all of its studios.

Yesterday, rumours became rampant that Pandemic Studios itself was to be closed, which were unfortunately proven correct later that day.

While the Pandemic brand and franchises will continue in one form or another, and a core team of intellectual property developers from the studio will be integrated into EA Los Angeles, the physical offices of the studio will be closed, as roughly 200 developers find themselves out of work.

El33tonline is still looking forward to The Saboteur, though, and our condolences go out to those who have lost their jobs.