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."

The consolidation is part of Electronic Arts' recently revealed cost reduction plan, which aims to save the company roughly $100 million through "the closure of several facilities and a headcount reduction of approximately 1,500 positions." EA acquired Pandemic alongside Mass Effect developer BioWare for $860 million back in 2007.

The fate of Pandemic's two unannounced projects remains unclear, with the studio's long-coming World War II stealth-action game The Saboteur due on December 8.

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."

More details, including an official statement, are expected shortly.

Original: Rumours are circulating that Pandemic Studios--the Los Angeles-based developer of the Mercenaries series and The Saboteur--is to be closed as part of EA's $100 million cost-cutting plan, first reported by Kotaku.

The majority of the studio's two hundred-odd staff will reportedly be informed today that the development and publishing giant intends to lay them off.

Further rumours suggest that one Pandemic team may survive the layoffs and join the EA Los Angeles campus--itself rumoured to be facing cuts in the form of the Command & Conquer 4 team. Pandemic's website lists two mystery "current projects."

Pandemic's open-world shooter sequel Mercenaries 2 suffered a lengthy development with several delays, though as of October 2008 it had sold 1.9 million copies and then-EA publishing COO John Pleasants declared "there will be a Mercenaries 3, and if I can have anything to do with it, there will be a Mercenaries 10... Read more

Supposed screenshots of Pandemic Brisbane's cancelled Batman game have emerged from the portfolio of artist Michael Pryor, as noticed by Kotaku Australia.

While Pryor never explicitly states these images are from the ill-fated movie tie-in, the shots certainly match the film's gritty rendition of Gotham City. There's even a monorail.

Reportedly facing a number of technical obstacles and missed deadlines, the game was said to have been cancelled last fall--roughly the same time that Pryor left Pandemic Brisbane for Pandemic Los Angeles, which is currently developing Saboteur.

Since then, owner Electronic Arts has axed it ties with Pandemic Brisbane, though Pandemic's other branch in Los Angeles was apparently unaffected by the cut.

As for Batman, the hero we deserve--but not the one we need--will return in video game form this summer via Batman: Arkham Asylum, which is being developed by Rocksteady Studios and co-published by Warner Bros. and Eidos.

Update: There have been some layoffs at Pandemic Brisbane, as programmer Tony Albrecht's blog confirms that he was "made redundant." In the comments, Albrecht confirms that he has already found a new position elsewhere.

Original: Electronic Arts has cut ties with its subsidiary Pandemic Brisbane, according to multiple reports. However, the studio is not closed, with Kotaku's source claiming that the severance was "was more of a 'Find a new publisher. Good luck.' kind of thing."

Brisbane will reportedly retain the rights to its original property as well as its equipment. According to one source, the studio was working on a Wii release titled The Next Big Thing, described as an "open world reality show."

Pandemic Brisbane represented half of the developer behind such games as Mercenaries, Star Wars: Battlefront, and The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, with the Australian office responsible for the first two Destroy All Humans! games.

The branch was rumored to be working on a Batman movie tie-in for The Dark Knight, which was reportedly cancelled due to budget issues and missed deadlines.

Pandemic's other half, Pandemic Los Angeles, is not affected by the closure, according to Games On Net. EA acquired Pandemic and BioWare in 2007 for $860 million.

When reached for comment, Electronic Arts told Gamasutra that it will not provide more details on its cost-cutting measures until February. The company previously said it would close "at least" nine facilities in order to save about $120 million per year.

Update: Developer Pandemic sent over a few screenshots of the game, and revealed that, in addition to PC, PS3, and X360, LOTR: Conquest will be hitting Nintendo DS this fall.

Original Story: IGN has first details on The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, a new action game in development at Mercenaries developer Pandemic Studios.

The game, in development for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 is likened to the Pandemic developed Star Wars: Battlefront, where players can jump into any battle they saw in the movies and help either side win. The game will include two campaigns -- one of them featuring a storyline where Sauron regains control of the One Ring -- and comes with co-op support; online as well as through split-screen. Electronic Arts previously noted the existence of the project during a meeting with analysts.

"Our Pandemic Studios creative teams have years of expertise... Read more

Electronic Arts is unsurprisingly planning future iterations for many of the hit franchises it publishes, including EA Black Box's Need for Speed, Criterion's Burnout, EA Black Box's Skate, and Harmonix's Rock Band.

EA president Frank Gibeau discussed the plans in an analyst meeting today, listing them as part of the company's "turn-around" strategy, which is focused on "a strong pipeline of innovative sequels and new IP" and increased digital revenue through titles such as Mythic's Warhammer Online and EA DICE's Battlefield Heroes.

As for the new IP, the president highlighted the company's plans to publish EA Los Angeles' Tiberium, BioWare's Dragon Age, DICE's Mirror's Edge, Pandemic's Saboteur, Valve's Left 4 Dead, and EA Redwood Shores' Dead Space.

Gibeau also mentioned the company's plans for EA Maxis' just-dated Spore (PC, NDS), detailing that efforts to bring the evolutionary simulator to more platforms and produce expansion content are already underway. The studio is known to be working on a Wii edition of the game.

Mega-publisher Electronic Arts is expanding its Sim brand with SimAnimals, and Mercenaries 2 developer Pandemic Studios, which was recently acquired by EA, is working on a new Lord of the Rings video game.

EA CEO John Riccitiello revealed the news in an analyst meeting today, noting that both titles are scheduled to release during EA's 2009 fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009.

No other details, such as platforms or genres, were mentioned in the accompanying slides.

In today's press and analyst financial conference call, Electronic Arts executives weighed in on the matter of PlayStation 3's development difficulties as they relate to multiplatform releases.

Likely in reference to games such as EA and Pandemic's own Mercenaries 2, EA executives were asked whether the challenges in development multiplatform games on PS3 have cleared up. "Not quite," responded EA CEO John Riccitiello.

"There's no doubt that Electronic Arts along with many publishers had some challenges...on the PS3," Riccitiello went on, referring mainly to the early generation of multiplatform games released on both PS3 and Xbox 360. Still, the situation is improving greatly as developers become more acquainted with the hardware. The CEO estimates the issues is only about a third the problem it once was.

He pointed out that parallel development on both systems is when difficulties are most present. Games developed primarily for PS3 tend to go much more smoothly in development, he said. For example, Criterion Games, a studio which prides itself on its strong familiarity with the PlayStation family, had few issues development Burnout Paradise (PS3, X360), whose lead platform was PS3.

Recently, PS3 development issues were named as a contributing factor in the delay of Rockstar North's highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 4 (PS3, X360).

Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PC, PS2, PS3, X360) has been pushed back yet again, with the destruction filled open-world game now set to release in publisher Electronic Arts' next fiscal year.

EA's 2009 fiscal year runs from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009; that broad release time frame was not narrowed down, but the game is likely to ship this year.

At last official word, Pandemic expected the game to appear in "early 2008," though retailer listings recently hinted at another delay. Today's news was contained within financial documents released by EA.

"We wanted to time it more closely to the movie," Pandemic co-founder and president Josh Resnick said when the game was first delayed last year. "But then we realized that we don't have a movie, so we just said, 'Aww hell, let's just make the game better.'"

Updated retailer listings for Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PC, PS2, PS3, X360) suggest the destruction filled open-world game may have been delayed yet again.

Both GameStop and Amazon.com now list the game as releasing on August 25, a substantial push from the previous target of Q1 2008. While retailers are notorious for using placeholder dates, it is extremely unlikely that two separate retailers would shift to the same date without outside word.

It wouldn't be the first delay for Mercenaries 2, which was originally slated to hit in the fall of 2007. "We wanted to time it more closely to the movie," Pandemic co-founder and president Josh Resnick said at the time. "But then we realized that we don't have a movie, so we just said, 'Aww hell, let's just make the game better.'"

Prior to the initial delay, the Venezuela Solidarity Network had petitioned U2 frontman Bono (pictured above) to cancel the title, as Bono was then a partial... Read more

Electronic Arts has completed its $860 million acquisition of VG Holding Corp., owner of renowned development studios BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios.

With BioWare and Pandemic now officially part of the EA family, the two studios will produce ten new franchises based on six EA-owned properties. BioWare is currently known to be working on Dragon Age (PC), a Sonic the Hedgehog DS RPG, an untitled MMO strongly rumored to be set in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic universe, with reports indicating that the other two entries in the planned Mass Effect (X360) trilogy and a sequel to Jade Empire (PC, Xbox) are on the wayas well.

Pandemic is currently working on two open-world titles, Saboteur (TBA) and the ever-controversial Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PC, PS2, PS3, X360), with the latter title expected to release shortly.

BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk will... Read more

A sequel to BioWare's original action RPG Jade Empire (PC, X36) is purportedly in the works, according to San Jose Mercury News' games guy Dean Takahashi. The reporter claims on his blog that he's spoken with someone who's seen code for Jade Empire 2 on Xbox 360.

"It's coming for the Xbox 360, and it's real," Takahashi wrote. Although he's sure its coming at least to Microsoft's platform, Takahashi speculated the title could be arriving on other consoles down the road in light of BioWare's relationship with game giant Electronic Arts.

"It will be interesting to see if Jade Empire 2 will remain an exclusive for the Xbox 360, now that Electronic Arts has agreed to acquire BioWare/Pandemic," he wrote. The original Jade Empire retailed first for Xbox in 2005, with a special edition arriving last year for PC.

Speaking to Shacknews, frequently-cited Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter expressed his belief that acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series developer Rockstar North may look to split off from parent Take-Two Interactive in 2009.

According to Pachter, Sam and Dan Houser, founders of Take-Two publisher subsidiary Rockstar Games, have a contract with Take-Two that expires in February 2009. Following the precedent of Bungie Studios' epic maneuver to independence in October, the Housers may then attempt to gauge the company's value on the market.

"I don't think that this is an issue of dissatisfaction with Take-Two; rather, I think it is rational to believe that in the wake of the $850 million Pandemic/BioWare deal, high quality developers like Bungie and [Rockstar] North would look to test their market value," said Pachter. Rockstar North has famously enjoyed a great amount of freedom under Take-Two, as the developer of what is by far the company's strongest property.

Pachter also pointed out that the Housers remain close to key members of the Rockstar North development team, including Les Benzies, who is part of the studio's management team and also directs development of the Grand Theft Auto... Read more

The FTC's antitrust regulators have given the green light to EA's acquisition of VG Holding Corp., the owner of both BioWare and Pandemic. EA announced the $860 million acquisition last month, and if no other complications arise, it should take effect starting in January as planned.

Considering EA CEO John Riccitiello's status as former CEO of Elevation Partners, owner of VG Holdings Corp., the exec has said other parties will be involved in mediating the deal to ensure shareholders' best interests. EA CFO Warren Jensen said he expects the deal to make the company $300 million in extra revenue annually.

The deal was given the okay in a list of early termination reviews--those green-lighted in less than the 30 days normally required--as listed on the FTC's Bureau of Competition website.

BioWare's eagerly anticipated MMO is set in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic universe, claims Primo Technology. The site attributes the information to a "source close to BioWare." Though the source in question must remain anonymous, Shacknews spoke with Primotech and received further information that adds validity to the report.

Shacknews attempted to verify the news directly by contacting the gamut of companies that would be involved in such a project, including studio owner Electronic Arts, Star Wars license holder LucasArts, Star Wars Galaxies publisher Sony Online Entertainment, and of course, BioWare itself. Those that responded were, unsurprisingly, non-committal. When asked about the rumored title, a LucasArts representative could neither confirm or deny the claims.

Today's report comes on the heels of Electronic Arts' purchase of BioWare and sister studio Pandemic, for which the publisher paid an exorbitant combined sum of $860 million. "In fiscal 2009 and 2010, we expect the BioWare and Pandemic properties to deliver revenue in excess of $300 million annually," said EA CFO Warren Jensen at the time. The potential earnings of an MMO from a well regarded developer, based on as lucrative a license as Star Wars, would lend credence to such a figure.

A Star Wars setting has been long-rumored for BioWare's debut MMO title, with rumors picking up steam in recent weeks. Citi industry analyst Brent Thill recently told Gamasutra that, "based on past development work," he believes the game to be a Star Wars title. Such a project could have been a major motivator in EA's decision to spend $860 million on the acquisition of BioWare and Pandemic.

BioWare developed the LucasArts-published Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on Xbox and PC, which was released in 2003 to critical ... Read more

For this week's ShackCast, Remo spent some time hands-on with Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) and several of its new characters--Pit from Kid Icarus, Meta Knight from the Kirby series, the new Samus and her Zero Suit form, and the just-revealed Sonic the Hedgehog.

Nick was at Epic's offices checking out Unreal Tournament 3, which he feels is underrepresented by its recent demo. Carlos met with Sierra to check out several upcoming PC and Xbox Live Arcade downloadable games; some--such as Aces of the Galaxy and Commanders: Attack of the Genos--are promising, and some--Battlestar Galactica--are not.

Plus, all of us played through Portal and loved it, because it is lovely. Finally, we discuss Double Fine's new game announcement and Electronic Arts' acquisition of BioWare and Pandemic Studios.

Don't forget to send in your questions and comments about video games, the Shack, or the ShackCast to shackcast@shacknews.com!

Play or download the podcast now, or browse the episodes through iTunes, RSS, or Digg--or continue on for the full breakdown. ... Read more

Shares of Electronic Arts were trading at $61.50 at 1:02 p.m. EDT today, a two-year high for the company. As of 2:32 p.m. EDT the stock is at $61.35, a 4.53% increase since yesterday's closing price, most likely due to the company's recent acquisition of both BioWare and Pandemic game studios from Elevation Partners.

The announcement of the acquisition came near the end of trading yesterday and had little effect on the stock's price. Despite EA paying an unquestionably large sum for both studios, $860 million, the company's investors seem to have spoken, giving the ever-growing mega-publisher their blessing in adding both BioWare and Pandemic to its stable.

The purchase price is apparently a record sum as far as video game acquisitions go, surpassing Microsoft's former record purchase of U.K.-based developer Rare for $375 million. In a conference call proceeding the announcement, EA CFO Warren Jensen said he expects the acquisition to nearly pay for itself by 2010, earning the company an estimated $600 million.

Update: In a conference call on the buyout, EA CFO Warren Jensen gave more details of the acquisition, including the total cost of the deal for the publisher: $860 million. "We've looked at a lot of companies and have had our eye on these studios for several years," Jensen said. "This is a powerful combination of creative talent and portfolio strength."

As motivations for the acquisition, Jensen listed the need to fill gaps in EA's portfolio of games--specifically with BioWare's RPGs and Pandemic's open-world titles--as well as EA's interest to further support MMO development with BioWare's upcoming massively multiplayer project. And of course, EA expects to make gobs of money from the purchase.

"In fiscal 2009 and 2010, we expect the BioWare and Pandemic properties to deliver revenue in excess of $300 million annually," he said.

EA CEO and former Elevation Partners CEO John Riccitiello addressed his involvement in the deal, conceding that the acquisition... Read more

Update: Pandemic has apparently denied any allegations that it changed aspects of Mercenaries 2 due to pressure from the Bono-obsessed Venezuela Solidarity Network.

"Pandemic Studios never has and never will be intimidated by tyrants," Pandemic president Josh Resnick told Shacknews. "Our invasion is on schedule: Mercenaries 2 will be released in early 2008."

Original Story: Remember the Venezuela Solidarity Network? The group that petitioned U2 frontman Bono (pictured above) to stop the development of Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PC, PS3, PS3, X360)? Well, they never heard back from Bono, but with the game delayed until next year and some controversial elements seemingly addressed, they're still considering the campaign a minor success.

"Bono never responded directly," campaign activist Marie Davis admitted to venezuelanalysis, "but apparently our point hit home that financing a violent video game that targets a government already targeted by the Bush administration is counter to the reputation as a humanitarian that he has earned with his work on AIDS in Africa and debt relief. Pandemics[sic] began to change the story line soon after our letter was delivered."

The VSN's main point of contention was the game's apparent mirroring of real-life tensions between the United States and Venezuela. With the title set... Read more

Pandemic Studios has confirmed the rumored delay of its open-ended soldier for hire life simulator Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PC, PS2, PS3, X360).

"The easy answer is that we wanted to time it more closely to the movie," Pandemic co-founder and president Josh Resnick told IGN. "But then we realized that we don't have a movie, so we just said, 'Aww hell, let's just make the game better.'"

Previously scheduled for a holiday 2007 release, Mercenaries 2 is now expected in Q1 2008.