Rumor: EA sets Pandemic Studios Australia free

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jan 14th 2009 at 8:50AM }

Electronic Arts has bid adieu to Pandemic Studios' Brisbane office, according to a "reliable source" speaking to Kotaku. The site reports that the studio has been "set free" and tasked with finding a new publisher, as opposed to being shut down completely.

EA acquired the Australian branch of Pandemic during its acquisition of BioWare last year. The studio is best known for the Destroy All Humans! series, but was rumored to have been working on other unannounced projects. We'll update if any new information arises.

Update: EA's Mariam Sughayer issued the following response: "In December, EA announced a cost reduction initiative that will impact facilities and headcount. We do not expect to make any more public announcements until our earnings call in early February. Outside of our scheduled earnings call, we aren't providing any new information on the status of individual facilities."

Tags: destroy-all-humans, ea, pandemic, pandemic-brisbane, pandemic-studios, rumor

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

soviet chick @ Jan 14th 2009 8:57AM

Wonder what affect this will have on Saboteur if true. I'm pretty sure that one was split between the two studios.

Ihavepants @ Jan 14th 2009 9:01AM

No that was being worked on in the American branch, those involved from the Australian Pandemic working on the game actually went over to America to do so, same story with Mercenaries 2 for the most part.

soviet chick @ Jan 14th 2009 9:07AM

Ah, well. That's good news. Still hope they are in tact though, and if not, hope they can work out new development arrangements either independently or tied to another publisher. The whole of Pandemic was such a beacon of awesomeitude last generation.

Ihavepants @ Jan 14th 2009 8:59AM

Well it's looking awesome to me as a student in game development in Australia, two of some of our biggest developers down in 2 years, FUCKYEAR. Hope someone picks them up but in the current business climate, I'm not too positive.

This is depressing. Oh well, indie development is looking shinier and shinier.

LaughingTarget @ Jan 14th 2009 10:41AM

Say hello to the positive side of a recession. When times are fat, weak organisms can survive. When times are lean, weak organisms die. It is the lean times that allow newer concepts to come to light when in good times, the bigger but weak ones would otherwise crush them.

This is when indie studios will shine and become tomorrow's major studios. It's best to get in on the ground floor and not look to a dying entity. Recessions end when the new business comes to market, bringing with it new future hope.

The Dark Wayne @ Jan 14th 2009 9:08AM

that sucks, DAH wasnt so great but it's still a shame. Hope those unannounced projects werent anything great. I especially hope they weren't The Dark Knight game I so desperately hope for

ScottG13 @ Jan 14th 2009 9:14AM

DAH was terrific until they handed it off to a poor developer.

LaughingTarget @ Jan 14th 2009 10:44AM

I thought the series was dull and uninspired from the start. The basic premise was cool, but stealing the Asgard from Stargate SG-1 as the history behind Crypto's species and the insanely limited gameplay options killed what was a cool idea.

ScottG13 @ Jan 14th 2009 10:51AM

Lets be clear. This is a PS2 era gen series, as well. For what it was at the time, it was pretty solid. The current gen title actually regressed.

Very sad.

LaughingTarget @ Jan 14th 2009 10:58AM

I know, played the original on the Xbox the week it came out. Found it boring then. They lacked mission variety, the art direction was sterile and the game itself was too easy. Again, great concept, terrible execution. The first game turned me off from the rest of the series.

t_m @ Jan 14th 2009 11:04AM

I don't get the way the industry works. The rate of studio turnover is insanely high.. and they'll probably go bankrupt, then form a new studio with a different name, then get picked up by EA for a sequel to DAH.

I have the feeling that there is some playing the system going in somewhere, and by constantly bankrupting and restarting studios they are getting some kind of benefit from the tax system or something...

Douche Bigalow @ Jan 14th 2009 1:47PM

While conspiracy theories are fun, in reality it's just people realizing how deep this recession is. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it will get worse. Natural recovery is being actively thwarted by political meddling in the US, and no matter what grief you have with the US, we lead the way for the world economy.

mawilbolou @ Jan 14th 2009 8:15PM

Its the industry...
It's a fact that even at the best of times... games companys either run out of money on production due to high staffing costs and poor decision in Design. Or the publisher will simply pullout when they think the market timing is wrong or the game isnt hitting the mark or deadline!

In this case, the recession doesn't help either of course.

I am guessing the decisions came from the US so obviously they will want to keep foreign costs to a minimum.

Whatever happened here.... I feel bad for those guys in Aussie, but I am also glad I didn't go to work there when I had the chance!

t_m @ Jan 14th 2009 10:16PM

The recession sure isn't helping, but its been happening like this for years... (and didn't the game industry grow by like 40% this year? )

Maybe it happens, but i don't remember movie studios (/production companies) getting shut down after every 1 or 2 movies... its hugely inefficient and essentially they just keep reconstituting the same teams every 2 years anyway... just with new logos and offices.

Imagine if most companies fired each dept. after each successful project, jsut to re-hire basically the same guys to do the same job in a dept. with a different name. and then do it again. :-o