EA Confirms Closing of Pandemic Studios Today

pandemic-rip

The rumor which surfaced just over an hour ago regarding the possible shut down of Pandemic Studios has just been confirmed via an internal Electronic Arts memo snagged by Kotaku. It seems that the individuals EA deems as the Pandemic “core” team will be merged into the EA Los Angeles office, while the roughly 200 other employees will be left jobless.

EA Games Label Senior Vice President, Nick Earl, made the following statements as a part of the aforementioned memo:

“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.

“This type of change can be difficult. But the situation calls for us to act decisively, to take control of our destiny and to run a stronger, more focused development operation. That’s how we will continue to make great games in our LA studios.”

It’s truly a sad day for fans of explosions, mercenary style payback, and the catchy “Oh No You Didn’t” track (below). Let’s all raise our glasses to Pandemic and thank them for their service. Share your thoughts in the comments section.

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  • http://www.savetheinternet.com/ DavidGX

    Great. Mercs 2 was buggy as all hell and even worse, had real world ads in it. They can die in a fire.

  • http://www.ripten.com Chad Lakkis

    I’m pretty sure adding things like in game ads was more of an EA call than a Pandemic decision.

  • http://www.savetheinternet.com/ DavidGX

    End result is still the same, that and the game was buggy as shit. I hate ads in video games more than few other things. I recently sold saints row 2 back to gamestop because of that shit.

  • Jonathan Zungre

    I’ll raise my glass. Here’s to you Pandemic, thanks for Mercenaries. Way to stand up to GTA last gen. Way to let me Nuke things this gen. RIP, boys.