Pandemic closes – up to Bioware and Mass Effect to save the day
Back in 2007 EA made one of the biggest studio purchases in quite some time. EA picked up Bioware and Pandemic studios for $860 million from VG Holding Corp as a bundle deal. However, two years later EA announced that Pandemic will be closing.
Pandemic studios have been around the video game industry for over a decade producing popular franchises such as the Mercenaries, Destroy All Humans! and Star Wars: Battlefront series. The studio was picked up along with Bioware as a bundle deal from VG Holding Corp.
According to Kotaku, EA confirmed this morning that Pandemic studios will be shut down and 200 employees will be made redundant. The top three honchos, Andrew Goldman, former CEO; Josh Resnick former president; and Greg Borrud VP of product development at Pandemic were among the fallout. I’m not surprised as they were probably getting paid the most.
However, EA is adamant that Pandamic owned IPs will continue to live on with a core IP team backing the studio’s legacy franchises. It seems like there is more pressure on Bioware to perform so that it doesn’t end up like its costly brother.
It really must have been tough to acquire both studios for almost a billion dollars and to have to shut one of them down only two years later. I wouldn’t be surprised if EA is pressuring Bioware to make up for the lost money by milking Mass Effect 2 for all its worth.
I have to say that its a shame that the studio had to be closed as I thoroughly enjoyed the Mercenaries games. Not too many studios these days will take the risk of making a fun balls-to-the-wall sandbox shooter. I suppose there is Crackdown 2 that could take its place. However, even that game’s fate is uncertain as its in the hands of a brand new studio.
Real shame about this. thoughts?
