Despite the shuttering of its current Los Angeles-based office and a significant reduction in its workforce, Mercenaries and The Saboteur series developer Pandemic will live on through a "core team," studio owner Electronic Arts tells Shacknews.

"Pandemic Studios and its franchises will be relocated to the EALA facility in nearby Playa Vista," explained the company. "This move has resulted in a reduction in the work force at Pandemic...That said, the Pandemic brand and franchises will continue to live on. A core team of Pandemic developers will move to EALA and continue development on Pandemic games with a focus on quality, cost management and schedule integrity." Read more »

Update 2: Studio owner Electronic Arts has chimed in, explaining that "a core team of Pandemic developers will move to EALA" and continue the Pandemic brand.

Update: "It's official, pandemic is shut down as of today," reads a tweet from Pandemic's Drew Marlowe. "Thankfully it looks like we are getting decent severance." Read more »

Pandemic today released the free "Blow It Up Again" DLC pack for the Xbox 360 version of Mercenaries 2. The content pack--which primarily includes four new missions--is highlighted in the below trailer.

The DLC hit the PlayStation Network last Thursday.

Following up on the late August release of Mercenaries 2 (PC, PS2, PS3, 360), EA publishing COO John Pleasants has stated that "there will be a Mercenaries 3, and if I can have anything to do with it, there will be a Mercenaries 10."

Not to be outdone by another open-world action game making an election-season publicity grab, presidential and vice-presidential candidates Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are to become playable characters in Pandemic's Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PC, 360, PS3, PS2).

G4 got the exclusive story from Pandemic's Tom Stratton, who offered up this explanation: Read more »

With Pandemic's dangerously flammable open-world game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames set to receive a patch soon for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, publisher Electronic Arts has sent along a trailer commemorating the occasion.

Entitled "Total Payback," the update adds an undisclosed amount of explosions as well as cheat codes and six new playable characters. It drops on October 13 on Xbox 360 and October 23 on PlayStation 3. Paid DLC will follow in November. Read more »

Pandemic's explosive-filled open-world military action game, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, is set to receive a free update in mid-October for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, followed by paid downloadable content in November.

The October update, dubbed "Total Payback," will add cheat codes to the game. "Unlock the total-payback power of all weapons, vehicles and airstrikes in Mercenaries 2, as well as everyone's favorite: Infinite Ammo and Infinite Health," exclaims the press release. Read more »

The PC demo of Pandemic's Mercenaries 2: World in Flames has finally arrived to complement the Xbox 360 and PS3 demos that came out last week.

Offering many, many explosions and a sliver of the game's open world, the demo weighs 1.6 GB and can be downloaded now from FileShack. Read more »

The first Mercenaries 2: World in Flames patch has been issued, updating the PC version of Pandemic's recently released action game sequel to version 1.1.

The 12mb download offers the following fixes

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The Mercenaries 2 demo, which publisher EA claimed was available last Friday, arrived today for North American Xbox 360 users via the console's online Xbox Live Marketplace.

Currently only available to Gold-level Xbox Live subscribers, the free 1.2 GB download offers up a small portion of Pandemic's explosion-filled action game, which launched on PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in late August. Read more »

Pandemic's open-world military action game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will get a playable demo for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, according to an announcement from publisher Electronic Arts.

The demo comes to Xbox Live today and will arrive on the PlayStation Network next Thursday, September 18.

Read more »

With Pandemic's explosion-filled open-world shooter Mercenaries 2: World in Flames due on PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 next week, publisher EA issued a launch trailer that it affectionately refers to as "Money."

In case you just can't wait until the Sunday release of Pandemic's action game sequel, a new Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PC, PS2, PS3, X360) trailer is now available.The video shows about fifty seconds of airstrike destruction.

Electronic Arts today released a cache of media from the PC version of Pandemic's open-world military shooter Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

The game is set to hit stores on August 31 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2; the PC version will follow on September 4. Read more »

Publisher EA has supplied a new trailer for Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PC, PS2, PS3, 360), Pandemic's explosion-fueled action game due out August 31.