EA Closes One BioWare/Pandemic Studio
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This recent news wasn't a surprise to employees, and today isn't the first set of cuts to the developer - EA suffered (like the rest of us) from the economic crisis late last year, which saw job losses at various developers. Earlier in the year, it was revealed in a poorly-kept secret that the local development team working on a high-profile (bat-related) title were running behind schedule and had missed a number of internal milestones, meaning the higherups cancelled the project, laying off or relocating staff members.And, judging by the disappointing scores being handed out to Pandemic's The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, it wouldn't surprise me if more people are let go in the near future.
So - while we're still waiting on official word about just what's been going on (Pandemic's phones have apparently been disconnected), it seems that things aren't as bad as we'd once thought (but not as good as we'd hoped, either). While it seems there's no more Pandemic presence in Australia, at least, for now, there will be something exciting rising from the ashes.
To get a better perspective on just how much things can change in a little over a year, here's a snip from an interview with Pandemic Studios right after the acquisition:
Do you feel that your way of running the studio might change? Are you worried about changes under EA management? Or are you expecting things to continue as they were?Let's hope that Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, and Star Wars: The Old Republic do well or one (or more) of BioWare's studios might suffer the same fate.
Greg Borrud: No, absolutely. We kind of pride ourselves on our independence for the last couple years, and we definitely want that to continue. And by all signs, that will continue as we move forward.
Nothing is changing internally in terms of management, nothing is changing in terms of the way we develop games, the kind of games we want to develop, our core pillars of building big brands and having event launches, and attracting the best talent in the industry. Those have been kind of core to who we are at Pandemic for years, and we think that actually EA allows us to take that to the next level.
JR: That's why they're partnering with us. That's how they ascribe value to us. They want us to continue to do what we're doing but grow and get even more support from their organization to continue on that path.
GB: We really do see our [company] as hopefully a really strong label within the larger EA organization. We're being brought in to really fill out their action-adventure category. And we think that compliments their strengths in all the other genres. And we think we can really help push their business forward by giving them all the great products in development right now.
