EA's Pandemic Studios shut down and merged with EALA

[PurpleGaga27 40]

I would like this news in the news section of CNCNZ:

 

http://kotaku.com/5406830/confirmed-ea-clo...nd-will-live-on

and

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6240463.html?...adlines;title;1

 

It appears Pandemic Studios has been shut down with 200 employees laid off and the remainder of what was left of Pandemic merged with EALA....well as to say, the new EALA. How about if the Pandemic guys there can help EALA finish off C&C4?

 

Even more news relating to this:

http://kotaku.com/5406861/ea-talks-command...or-re+invention

and

http://www.marketrap.com/article/view_arti...two-years-later

[Nmenth 291]

Nice quote:

EA has a history of acquiring hit developers, only to close them down at a later date. Most famously, the publisher picked up Command & Conquer developer Westwood Studios in 1998, only to shutter it in 2003

[Malovolpe 3]

Atleast Pandemic wasn't aquired by Activision in 2007.

[Sonic 296]

How about if the Pandemic guys there can help EALA finish off C&C4?

Well that's a silly statement. There is already a dedicated team working on and finishing off C&C 4 already.

 

Anyway, I've covered the basics of this news that is relevant to Command & Conquer in the news forum here http://forums.cncnz.com/index.php?showtopic=12880.

 

[Mighty BOB! 5]

The only games by Pandemic that I have played are the Star Wars Battlefront games. Pretty good games. I also watched a friend play Mercenaries once but never tried it out myself. What a pity.

[Sonic 296]

I've got The Saboteur on my shopping list, looks great! Which will be Pandemic's last game. It releases next month, on December 8th.

[Malovolpe 3]

EA has a history of acquiring hit developers, only to close them down at a later date. Most famously, the publisher picked up Command & Conquer developer Westwood Studios in 1998, only to shutter it in 2003

 

Every major publisher has a history of doing that btw >_>

[Nmenth 291]

Every major publisher has a history of doing that btw >_>

Doesn't make it right...

[Saracen 16]

Atleast Pandemic wasn't aquired by Activision in 2007.

 

Pandemic wasn't around in 2007. It was founded by an Activision Employee in 1998, and was founded on an investment grant by Activision, who had a major shareholder stake in the company at the time. So in fact Activision did own Pandemic until the end of 2005 where it joined with Bioware under VG. It was only when VG was in trouble did EA buy them out, and acquired both Pandemic and Bioware in the process.

 

The closure of Pandemic is not a surprise to me. EA never had any interest in that company from the day it purchased VG Holdings. It's main interest was only Bioware and it's epically mammoth RPG teams. A company that could make Classic gaming heavyweights such as Baulders Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Knights of The Old Republic to name but a few, is an absolutely huge investment. In fact I highly doubt Bioware would ever be under threat of the same fate, especially with DragonAge being so highly successful so early on... EA live for games that can be claimed as "Genre title of the Decade!".... So they aren't going anywhere.