Pandemic Studios closes, some employees stay, licenses will be used.

Pandemic
Pandemic Studios, the company who brought us Full Spectrum Warriors, Star Wars Battlefront, Destroy All Humans and Mercenaries, is closing down. The company joined together with BioWare a few years back, and the two were jointly purchased by EA. The studio recently had to close a studio in Australia and was rumored to have suffered layoffs. Well those rumors are in fact true as the group is officially being closed.

Some of the core IP team will stay with EA, being moved to other parts of EA, and the company’s licenses will be picked up by EA from here on out, but the leads of the group, such as the CEO, studio president and vice president of product development. This is just the latest in a line of closes by EA with many of Sims developer Maxis suffering from layoffs, and Command and Conquer developer Westwood Studios being liquidated a few years back.

Pandemic’s next game, The Saboteur is scheduled to be released later this year, and Nick Earl, EA Games Label Senior Vice President, has said that the company’s series and branding will no die out with the company. “I want to make it clear that the Pandemic brand and franchises will live on. In the months ahead, we will announce plans for new games based on Pandemic franchises.”

R.I.P. Pandemic.

Confirmed: EA Closes Pandemic Studios, Says Brand Will Live On [Kotaku]

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