Pandemic Studios was an American video game developer based in Los Angeles, California, with a secondary office in Brisbane, Australia. Founded in 1998, the studio was known for a variety of titles, including Full Spectrum Warrior, ', Dark Reign 2, Destroy All Humans!, ', ', ' and The Saboteur. In 2007, the studio was acquired by Electronic Arts, who closed it two years later in 2009, shortly after the completion of The Saboteur.
History
Pandemic was formed in 1998 by president Josh Resnick and CEOAndrew Goldman, both formerly of Activision, along with most of the original team members that worked on Battlezone and '. The studio was founded with an equity investment by Activision. The company name was narrowed down from around six choices, including Seismic. In the end, Pandemic was chosen as the name. Pandemic's first two games, ' and Dark Reign 2, were both sequels to the aforementioned games for Activision. In 2000, Pandemic opened a development studio in the Brisbane suburb of Fortitude Valley, whose first project was ', a real-time strategyconsole game using the Dark Reign 2 engine. Destroy All Humans! was the studio's next game. In 2003, the Los Angeles studio moved from its founding location at Santa Monica to a high-rise building in Westwood. In November 2005, a partnership was announced between Pandemic and Canada's BioWare, with private equity fundElevation Partners investing in the partnership. Both companies retained their brands and identities. On October 11, 2007, it was announced that VG Holding Corp., BioWare and Pandemic's owner, would be acquired by Electronic Arts as of January 2008, subject to FTC approval. In February 2009, the Brisbane office was shut down. Nine months later, in November, EA cut a total of 1,500 jobs, which affected various studios, including Pandemic. On November 17, EA officially confirmed Pandemic's closure, laying off 228 employees. The company absorbed 35 Pandemic employees into its EA Los Angeles studio to support The Saboteur and an unannounced project which was later revealed to be Mercs Inc, a sequel to the Mercenaries series. In response, four former employees of the studio created an Office Space-style video, where they are shown smashing their office printer. Over a dozen former Pandemic developers are now employed at 343 Industries having worked on ' and Halo 4. Other former employees have gone to work for Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Respawn Entertainment, Blendo Games and many others.
