EA Shuts Down Pandemic Studios

[B-Unit]

"The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games." Kotick later stated he tries to promote an atmosphere of "skepticism, pessimism, and fear" in his company and, "We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression." -Wikipedia

Wow, that explains alot...

 

[Regulas]

"Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated!"

 

[Regulas]

[citation][nom]B-Unit[/nom]"The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games." Kotick later stated he tries to promote an atmosphere of "skepticism, pessimism, and fear" in his company and, "We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression." -WikipediaWow, that explains alot...[/citation]
Right on, ditto.

 

[ant1-b0dy]

I'll ask Joe Kucan about this before I do any real speculation.

 

[ant1-b0dy]

Ok I wish we had an EDIT button. Joe has told me that they might be merging Pandemic with EA and I quote: "but most of the new guys really arn't that bad. we're just running outta ideas and crap for CNC"

 

[deltatux]

Why would they drop C&C and Maxis? They are two of the largest money making franchises EA has...

 

[Clintonio]

Toms really should put a little more background info into their articles. I might give a damn if I knew what Pandemic did.

Gonna google it, but I shouldn't need to.

 

[matt87_50]

EA is the worst thing to happen to the games industry.

 

[tamalero]

matt: you're wrong.. the worst is ACTIVISION

 

[Guest]

Eh... It's sad and it's not.

Some of these smaller companies honestly SEEK to be bought out, knowing they'll likely get shut down. You've got to understand that most of the employees are stockholders. When EA\Activision\Faceless Congolomerate X buy them out for ridiculous globs of money, these employees generally get a decent cut. Furthermore, as stockholders, they usually have some say in this as well. And if the employees are smart, they've had their retirement put into stock... It's honestly fairly standard for the industry.

When they get bought, the employees get a nice lump sum and usually continue working until new big brother drops most of them. So long as they're smart and don't spend that whole payout on something, they're fine.

And honestly, to some degree you do have to sometimes have to move franchises to new development teams. For example, the RE series, RE4\5 was a major departure for the series, new dev team made new ideas work very well. Other examples are the change in quality from more recent Tomb Raider games, Fallout 3, and there are others. I'm not saying it's always good, but do we really want to see another adventure from the Sonic Team? Teams get stale and stagnant, and sometimes the only way for the industry as a whole to keep things fresh is the circle of [employment] life, as layed off employees get work with different teams, or form new dev teams, new ideas sprout forth, and we get new franchises we can all enjoy. It's just how things are.

Besides, it's business, when a company sells to big brother; the investors and\or employees know that it's likely coming in the future, it's expected. Is it really fair to expect the buying company to nurture a smaller studio while they make subpar products? Honestly now, if EA buys Pandemic, and Pandemic's new products start selling less, how is it fair to expect EA to continue biting the bullet? EA already invested $XXX into Pandemic to buy them in the first place, why should they suffer for that? And honestly, Pandemic really didn't have a lot of fantastic exclusive rights franchises. No one cared about the Mercenaries series, Pandemic didn't own Star Wars Battlefront, and their LotR title was abysmal... So what are folks so worried about EA 'stealing' from this now-defunct studio, anyways?

Eh, nobody likes losing their jobs, but understand that this happens, and smart folks in these positions aren't without their safety nets.

 

[shiftstealth]

ea needs to stop buying game companies like pandemic and westwood and shutting down their games.

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]jhansonxi[/nom]"I want to make it clear that the Pandemic brand and franchises will live on"So the theory here is that the brand determines product quality, not developers.[/citation]


well of coruse ... what use could teh developers be they are just poeple, the brand is every thing !!!!! OMG save teh brand ... who cares if a bunch of ahrd workers wil be eating out of trash can;'s now and sellign thier kids to strangers to eat !!! we ahve to save those brands ..... (sarcasm )

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]Curnel_D[/nom]This is good news. I was very unhappy the moment I heard EA was buying bioware/pandemic. Now the majority of the Pandemic studio can go on to create a new startup studio without being under the heavy hand of EA.[/citation]


so EA can buy them upa gain ... this is teh way thigns are these days , small punlishers are dying, developer companies are getting bought by large publishers , the hard times of the economy is making these big name publishers consolidate indstry resources ... saddly those resources are namely "brand names" with next to no concern of the people behind those brands ... basisically they are fucking every thing up fot eh little guys , which is bassically what every "big" industry in western civilization has done , but times wil cahnge back eventualy look at teh movie industry

when it started ther were lots of somall names and small studios , eventuallye very thign got consolidated into the "big names" for the lognest time youe ver ehard about these were the only movies worth seeing and teh only companies making the big cash , well slowily in the late 90's the indi film industry started boomign now yopu got all manner of small names out tehr making every bit as much moneya s some of teh big names .. same case withte h music industry ... given teh current trend i highly doubt the big names will reign for long in teh game insdustry i give them ten years tops , then little companies wil start to prosper again

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]lifelesspoet[/nom]If they pull this crap with Bioware, I will personally drive down and drag the ceo away in my trunk.[/citation]
[citation][nom]randerson[/nom]Can I join you?[/citation]

I call shot gun !

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]glorfendel[/nom]Ea has to know at this point that if they so much as send a email with a pink background to anyone at Bioware. Fire the janitor for stealing and having sex on the bosses desk. we will hear about it and the nerd rage will go in to high gear. Bioware and Valve to name a few are not to be toyed with let them do what they do and get your checks they may not be quite as big as you think they could be but your still making. what they could stand to lose messing with Bioware is huge. I for one end up buying like 20+ EA titles a year for friends family or my self. If bioware is tainted by there greed i will take my money elsewhere and I'm sure others would do the same. (I hate EA and do my best to stay away from them but my mother and sister are Sims addicts and they make ez gifts)MESS WITH BIOWARE AT YOUR PERIL!!!!NO ONE WANTS TO SEE NERD ON NERD CRIME.[/citation]

EA doesnt own valve , they merely ahve a publishing contract with them for thier retial games .. Valve is stil their own company , all ea does is publish teh physical retail copies of valve's games , ehll if you get your valve games directly from steam EA deosnt even see one red sent and their name isnt any where on the valve developed games at steam. also keep in mind vlave also publishes otehr developers games as well no , EA doesn't own valve and never wil valve is to big to ever be bought by any one

 

[jimmysmitty]

[citation][nom]Transmaniacon[/nom]C&C is one of the greatest game franchies ever, I am with aznriptide859 on this one, don't screw us EA...[/citation]

Did you guys not hear that C&C4 was to be the last C&C? I heard that a while ago and am pretty pissed.

But it hasn't been the same since EA took over Westwood really.

 

[azxcvbnm321]

EA is a very poorly run company. I would never think about owning that stock because management is incompetent. They frequently pay big bucks for smaller software companies, but always end up gutting the company and destroying any creative potential. So they're left with a brand name and nothing else, a few years later, the franchise dies and they go out and purchase yet another company.

EA should have cut its own crappy and unproductive programmers as well as management. Their expenses are out of control relative to other game companies, despite having the Sims Franchise, EA Sports franchises (which have been run into the ground) and so forth, they've lost money for more than a year now. How? Management needs to be fired, shareholders need to clean house and get people who know how to make EA productive. Perhaps EA needs to be split into smaller companies so that creativity can be encouraged and efforts focused on a few core games plus new stuff.

 

[Tamdrik]

According to Wikipedia, Pandemic's game history consists of:

* Battlezone II (1999)
* Dark Reign 2 (2000)
* Triple Play 2002 (2002)
* Army Men RTS (2002)
* Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2002)
* Full Spectrum Warrior (2004)
* Star Wars: Battlefront (2004)
* Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005)
* Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (2005)
* Destroy All Humans! (2005)
* Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers (2006)
* Destroy All Humans! 2 (2006)
* Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (2008)
* The Lord of the Rings: Conquest (2009)

Doesn't look like they're actually the C&C team (though the article does mention that they, too, were affected by the job cuts).

 

[hillarymakesmecry]

EA sucks. Command and Conquer really sucks. Red Alert was way more fun than the new stuff.

 

[gamerk316]

This is what EA does. They buy companies for the IP, not the developers. They then milk the games as they are for years on end, making no improvements as they go along.