Shacknews reports that Pandemic Studios' action-packed Venezuela-wrecking shooter, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, has been struck with another delay, this one sending it careening into publisher EA's 2009 fiscal year. Though the game "is likely to ship this year," the official release period now stretches from April 2008 to March 2009.

The news follows several rumors which suggested that EA would show gamers no Mercenaries until August. We'll let you know as soon as official release date debris details come hurtling through our office window.

Electronic Arts has dropped a cold, emotionless reminder of its late-2007 acquisition of both BioWare and Pandemic Studios, announcing that the pair have now been officially digested by the EA collective. While we remain cynical of the whole affair – it is, after all, what we do – EA has announced that the pair has been tapped to create a whopping ten new franchises for EA, based on six different "wholly-owned" properties. 10? Seriously? BioWare alone hasn't touched that much code in nearly a decade, though to be fair EA hasn't laid out a time line for how often these games will emerge.

Both BioWare and Pandemic will be overseen by EA Games' top cheese Locutus...erm, Frank Gibeau, and according to the executive the acquisition will broaden EA's game portfolio in the RPG, action and adventure genres. A cloud of mystery continues to hang over the bulk of these new projects, though EA has confirmed that BioWare remains hard at work on Dragon Age and the DS Sonic RPG, while Pandemic is chugging along developing Mercenaries 2: World in Flames and Saboteur. At least it seems as though the assimilation hasn't freed the developers of independent thought, though granted it does take some time before the implants take hold.

Pandemic put together a small set of viral videos promoting its mercifully delayed Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. The mockumentary is The Office-esque and follows the exploits of Jim Holston, a "real" mercenary who visits the Pandemic studios to "check out the game."

There is no Mercenaries 2 gameplay footage or launch announcement in the videos that we can see, the first episode is above with the other three found after the break. If you like cringe-humor created by awkward situations then you may find a few moments of laugh-out-loud humor in the videos. We'll never view motion capture technology the same way again after seeing what Holston does to the Pandemic receptionist.

Electronic Arts has announced today that it will acquire VG Holding Corp. from Elevation Partners. VG Holding owns both Pandemic Studios and BioWare, which means the deal nabs both developers for EA. Electronic Arts will be paying up to $650 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding, with up to $155 million being paid in equity to specific employees. Pandemic is currently hard at work on the excessively violent sandbox title, Mercenaries 2, which is being published by EA. The deal raises questions about BioWare, as the company is currently developing the galaxy hopping RPG Mass Effect for Microsoft Game Studios. As the game is set to be a trilogy, we have to wonder what this deal means for the next two installments.

We'd love to make some sort of Madden RPG joke here (Madden Effect, perhaps?), but we just don't have the energy. Hit the "read" link for the full press release.

[Via Joystiq]

Pandemic Studios is ready to explain why Mercenaries 2: World in Flames was delayed until 2008. In an IGN interview, Pandemic pres. Josh Resnick says they delayed the game so that "every corner of our vast, open-world, highly explosive gameplay is completely polished." He says they are not adding anything else to the game but are merely fixing bugs "to make gamers proud that they own a copy of Mercenaries 2 by making the highest quality next-gen open-world experience the world has ever seen." Well, hopefully Pandemic can own that title for a while before GTA IV comes out around the same time.

Did the multi-platform development cause the delay? Resnick says , "Not at all." He says that all the different version are "shaping up nicely." He also says that the delay has not affected the development of Saboteur and it's still planned for 2008. There's a lot of fluff in the interview, but at least the developers have spoken on the issue instead of just letting the fanboys blame the PS3 for every game with multi-platform development.

Online retailers have been hinting at it for a while and now developer Pandemic is fessing up announcing that Mercenaries 2: World in Flames has officially been delayed into early 2008. In an interview with IGN, president of Pandemic Josh Resnick stated that Mercenaries 2 fell back to a Q1 2008 release because they need some more development time and that the studio doesn't "want to slop out a game just to meet a deadline". Kudos for being frank and honest Mr. Resnick, sometimes games need to cook in the oven a bit longer to bring out their subtle flavors and lovely texture. We'll be ready and willing to snack on destruction next year.

[Thanks, todd]

This is a case of what happened with Dark Sector, we believe. See, this holiday season already has such a large lineup of games situated for release that to increase chances of scoring sales, some of the titles with lower expectations (we don't think less of them, the publishers just think they can't compete with bigger titles) are getting shoved into an early 2008 release window. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, long scheduled for a 2007 release, has recently gotten nudged into that early '08 slot for reasons unknown, besides our own theory, of course.

The thing is, games like Mercenaries 2 and to a lesser extent, Dark Sector, aren't bad looking games. They could probably hold their own if released over the holidays, but to really increase their chances of being runaway hits, holding off until next year is a pretty safe alternative. So for those of you itching to get your sandbox-destruction on, we're sorry, but you'll have to find another way to enjoy explosions, since Mercenaries 2 has been pushed back.

[via N4G]

We should really start marking every delay with a "happy delay" or "sad delay". Mercenaries 2: World in Flames being pushed to 2008 is a happy delay. We've already discovered that this holiday season is already so disgustingly jam-packed with games that we'll take any delays we can get -- unless it's something major we can no longer wait for. Merc 2, not so major, gives them time to polish -- happy delay.

EA hasn't given an official reason for the delay, that's fine. Add some more explosions, get the AI working properly -- whatever, take your time Pandemic, no rush. The game is expected for PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS2. As long as Mercenaries 2 brings the destruction of the first one back with more polish, it'll be a nice mindless title of joy in the vein of Crackdown to get us through early '08.

Pandemic describes Mercenaries 2 as "Bruckheimer meets Tarantino," drawing a distinction between its sequel and the narratively drab original. Mercs 2 is "sexy" and campy, and wildly destructive. "I'm just hooked on the destruction!" shouted a developer into a Canadian cameraman's lens. Bridges and building burst into flames and debris (and then respawn later), only to be demolished again.

Much like Burnout Paradise, Mercs 2 is played in a virtual sandbox that feels lonesome, even boring without the company of a human co-player. Luckily, Pandemic will include full co-op support (though unlike the E3 Burnout preview, this feature was not on display). Without the promised structure of a hearty narrative and "three-dimensional" characters, our demo felt like long stretches of the first Mercenaries game, as we leveled structures and mowed down unsophisticated AI combatants with little purpose.

The danger of many open-world titles is the possibility of wondering off onto redundant tangents that don't offer much to discover, just more to destroy. Ironically, as much ballooned, generic action as Mercs 2 provides, it feels like a niche game. A fun buddy romp for sure, but Mercs has now slid out to the peripheral of our radar, no longer a must-look-for during this year's rich holiday season.

Note: Xbox 360 box art is used above to reflect that Pandemic and EA are currently previewing Mercenaries 2 on Xbox 360 only.

We are a gaming news site, after all. Let's move away from all the juicy new info and give you a preview of a game we're still in the air about. Some may dislike it, but the loyal fanbase of the original Mercenaries title are ready for more and we've got some hands-on impressions from IGN to keep you worked up. Let's make a list.

• Everything is destructible, so set those trees on fire and watch the blaze spread. The fire is claimed to be the best-looking thing in the early build of the game. So either it looks really good or the game looks kinda bland.
• Did we mention everything is destructible? Every building, vehicle, other person, whatever -- all can meet their doom thanks to you.
• There are thirty weapons in Mercs 2 and over 200 vehicles. The fun lies in the vehicles, though. You won't necessarily have to pull a Grand Theft Auto and take a 20 minute jog to get the perfect vehicle, though. As you kick ass, you earn cash. This cash can be traded in for special weapons, attacks (air strikes), or vehicles to be delivered on the spot. Want a Wave Runner on that small lake? You got it!
• Stealing a tank from an enemy involves a more God of War inspired button-pressing sequence, whereas other vehicles will only require one press of the action button to oust whoever else happened to be driving it.

There are a lot more impressions about the actual level played in the hands-on treatment, but we'd like to leave that up to you to read. It's pretty entertaining and we're moderately jealous. The game seems to be shaping up nice, but since we haven't heard how their online service will work, we've got our reservations until we see that in action.

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The debut trailer for Mercenaries 2: World in Flames has been released and we have it embedded above for your convenience. The action in the game looks pretty hot, and the graphics aren't too shabby either. The lighting and explosions are really impressive, and the destructive enviroments look really ... breakable? Either way it looks really cool, and a blast to play. Jacking helicopters looks completely crazy. Did you ever get your hands on the first Mercenaries, and are you ready for some new gen flavor?

[Thanks, Jonah Falcon]

Like a long-lost lover seen in our periphery as they board a train to Paris, our dream of teabagging a friend's corpse right after we call an air strike on them continues to flit just out of our reach. Its latest elusion: The exclusion of competitive multiplayer from Mercenaries 2.

Do we take some comfort in the dozens of new weapons mentioned in the Eurogamer interview? The addition of boats? The hundreds of other new vehicles? Sure, some. But it's a cold comfort. And yes, we can already hear you now: "There's cooperative multiplayer, can't you air strike/teabag that way? Isn't that the same?" But that's obviously different. How can you teabag someone without a victory? It's just ... hollow.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Eurogamer recently sat down with Scott Warner, Pandemic's lead designer for Mercenaries 2. We don't get a ton of new info on the game, but it's interesting nonetheless. One nugget that was revealed is that while most areas will respawn after they've been destroyed, there are certain areas that will remain in tatters after you've blown them to smithereens. The game will feature hundreds of new vehicles including boats, a first for the series. There's bad news for multiplayer fans though, as there are no plans for any competitive multiplayer. Mercenaries 2 will, however, feature online co-op. Hit the "read" link for the full interview.

There is no mention of Bono in the interview by the way, though we expect he was -- as always -- lurking in the shadows.

Oh, it was an attempted play on the most annoying famous band in the world's name. Political activists have called on various religious leaders to join in creating a petition asking, specifically, Bono (frontman of U2) to prevent the release of Pandemic's upcoming sandbox title that just happens to take place in Venezuela. The petition goes thus:

"The organization is seeking to gather the signatures of various religious leaders for a letter (PDF format) intended for the one man they feel can and should stop the game from going to market--U2 frontman Bono. The Irish crooner and part-time activist is one of the board members of Elevation Partners, the venture capital firm that is a majority stakeholder in the partnership between Pandemic and BioWare, which brought the two independent game developers together under the name BioWare/Pandemic Studios."

Stupid. Nothing annoys this guy more. Especially if you read the humorous take from Maddox's website on U2 -- not to be taken seriously (and not for the young'uns). We should create a petition for people to petition against stupid petitions. Is anyone seriously offended by this, of all games?

[also available in Joystiq coloring]