EA confirms closure of Pandemic Studios

By Ellie Gibson Published 18 November, 2009

But brand and franchises "will live on".

Electronic Arts has confirmed that Pandemic Studios, the company behind Mercenaries, Full Spectrum Warrior and The Saboteur, is to shut down.

Word of the closure began to emerge yesterday and according to Kotaku, an internal memo has now made it official.

Around 200 members of staff will be made redundant including CEO Andrew Goldman, president Josh Resnick and product development boss Greg Borrud. A "core IP team" will get new jobs at EA LA.

The closure does not mean the end of the road for Pandemic's titles, however. "I want to make it clear that the Pandemic brand and franchises will live on," EA exec Nick Earl wrote. "In the months ahead, we will announce plans for new games based on Pandemic franchises."

Earlier this month EA announced plans to cut 1500 jobs. Studios affected are said to include Maxis, Mythic and Redwood Shores.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Dizzy #1 2 years ago

    Buy and shutdown. Good job EA.

    /sarcasm

  • keyboardmonkey #2 2 years ago

    Booo Hissss! Full Spectrum Warrior was an ace game on the old xbox.

    When will developers learn. Sell yourself to EA, be made redundant within a couple of years.

    I hope they reform and continue making games.

  • actionfitz #3 2 years ago

    return to the bad old EA?

    I really do hope no one from Pandemic got the news first from the internet... as the rumours started to fly the other day.
    that would suck even more balls. :/

  • Redeye #4 2 years ago

    Commiserations to all at Pandemic - not too impressed with EA's attitude of 'sod the staff, we've got their IP', though.

  • lennon #5 2 years ago

    Does this effect The Saboteur? I hope not I really like the look of it. Such a shame as Mercs and FSW were two of my favourite xbox games.

  • ShinMegami08 #6 2 years ago

    ...and I bet saboteur is going to be a big hit.

  • qoobah #7 2 years ago

    While this certainly sucks for anyone employed at the layoff affected studios I'm surprised to see that some here think that enterprises are there for charity. This is games _industry_, money doesn't grow on trees. No trees, no games. Or something.

    Anyways I wouldn't put the heat on EA just for the fact that they want to control their expenses.
    Edited by 1 at 18/11/09 @ 09:35

  • FortysixterUK #8 2 years ago

    This is the normal MO for E.A.
    They have always done this, since the advent of the 2nd generation of Games consoles ( PS2 etc)

    They take all the IP's and fire the people.

    I don't know, maybe if I were a mega rich company I'd do the same
    ( and to be honest, in the recent 3-4 years their output has increased in quality massively, but only becaue they have chewed up and spat out numerous other companies).

    However, it still seems unfair, and they were not a great company to work for either
    ( I was only a testing dummy myself, but they dump on their testers the same way they appear to dump on the companies they absorb)

  • Master09 #9 2 years ago

    Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, the upcoming The Saboteur and Dante' Inferno are an example of how EA are turning over a new leaf and making new IPs after the criticisms they have had of milking franchises. EA at least are now showing to be listening to the gaming folks.

    The hatred EA still receive from some gaming quarters is ludicrous to say the least. The gaming industry has been hit by tough financial times and many publishers and devs have been laying off stuff not just EA.

    Folks need to stop being sheep by joining the EA hate band wagon as its unwarranted these days.

  • Monkey_Puncher #10 2 years ago

    I'm sorry to say this but although Pandemic looked like a really promising and forward thinking developer on the last generation of consoles (Mercs and Full Spectrum Warrior were excellent) the move to PS3 and Xbox 360 has really not done them any good. Their games just haven't been up to standard, Mercs 2 was a buggy broken mess of a game, Lord of the Ring was dire and The Saboteur even though it has some interesting ideas, really doesn't look particularly great.

    It's no real surprise that EA have pulled the plug IMO.

    I wish all employees the best though finding new work, they clearly are talented developers, just a bit misguided recently.
    Edited by 1 at 18/11/09 @ 10:04

  • cianchristopher #11 2 years ago

    @FortysixterUK: the 2nd generation of games consoles (PS2 etc.)?

    I think you'll find that it was the 6th generation of games consoles!

  • mkreku #12 2 years ago

    No word on how this affects The Saboteur? I hope it's released as planned as I was planning on getting it!

  • Beige_Alert #13 2 years ago

    Lets hope quality is good enough on The Saboteur, patches are likely to take some time if only a few of the devs are still around.

  • beckyh #14 2 years ago

    Saboteur should be okay, its only out in a few weeks so should be finished?

  • zootle #15 2 years ago

    Redundancy sucks, commiserations to those affected.

    Still glad I quit the games industry 4 years ago.

  • mezzomorto #16 2 years ago

    From Gamespot:
    "Brown said Pandemic's next game, The Saboteur, was unaffected by the layoffs and is on track for its December 8 release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC."

  • BBIAJ #17 2 years ago

    How come Destroy All Humans! is never mentioned in the same breath as Pandemic?

    I love those games!

  • kongzi #18 2 years ago

    They never were as good as everyone made them out to be. Mercenaries2 was one of my most anticipated games this generation, and I watched all the developer diaries. In retrospect, those vids already kind of showed the company was made up of a bunch immature nerdlingers trying to be superstar developers. The game eventually sucked. They just got lucky with Mercs1 and that alien game that was pretty funny.

    I remember when they sold out to EA (around the same time as Bioware) they were all quick to assure us they would remain as good as idenpendent and that this was great move for everyone, blah blah blah. It felt like bullshit then, and proves itself now. If you sell out to a big company this, something like this WILL happen sooner or later. So we're all pretty quick to point the finger to EA on this, but you should watch those developer vids on the mercs2 site (if they're still there)...