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WHAT?!! | |
What games did they actually make again? | |
I could probably go without losing any sleep if all of EA disappeared tomorrow. I know, they did really well with SOME of the Call of Duty games, but that's about it. Unless I'm misinformed, EA was the first company to pull the bitch move of surprising the gamer with no local multiplayer support, stating later that they feared if you went over your friend's house to play the game you wouldn't buy it for yourself. For that, they deserve a fate worse than Saddam. | |
Farewell Pandemic, you made some damn good games. | |
This maybe a dumb question, but where does the mess leave The Saboteur? That one looked vaguely interesting, are Pandemic going to finish it or is on the cutting room floor along with their jobs? | |
Was just going to ask this myself. I hadn't even heard of the game until I saw a video on GiantBomb last week. Looked pretty nifty. Like a WW2 Assassins Creed with a chainsmoking Irishman. Gameplay looked wicked fun as well. | |
Noooooo they were fucking awesome. | |
Damn you John Riccitiello!!! Pandemic kicked ass. SO MUCH ass. They made 3 awesome Star Wars games, the Merc games, Destroy All Humans!... May the heavens lament, for a star has just gone out. | |
what? But I wasted so many hours with battlefront and the original mercenaries... let me tell you, those were hours well wasted. | |
Is there any word whether Saboteur will be saved? I want to get my hands on Pandemic's last game... especially since the main character is an Irishman. | |
*Cough* Activision *Cough* Seriously though, Activision published all Call of Duty games, half of them being made by Infinity Ward, the other by Treyarch. EA has nothing to do with the Call of Duty franchise whatsoever. | |
Sorry, I stand corrected. Must've been another ww2 franchise. Then let 'em burn | |
'Tis truly a sad day for gamers the world over. *Removes hat in respect* | |
Which game are you talking about? | |
Mercs 2 and LOTR Conquest weren't up to snuff. And why did they let go of Destroy all Humans? Path of the Furon was horrible. | |
And nothing of value was lost... That said, my take on this is Riccitiello scammed EA out of money for himself on the purchase (800 million? REALLY?) but this closure wasn't part of it, just shrapnel from the "EA Massacre" basically. | |
Battlefront? Shit, now I am sorely depressed. I was hopeing that a battlefront 3 would come out on the 360. Now it will never happen. =( | |
Guys are missing the real point here , Firaxis (Civ games) and Irrational games (Bioshock) sells for $38 mil ... and Bioware and Pandemic were bought for $840 mil, sounds damn suspicious to me as well. If EA had paid $40 mil for them and then got rid of Pandemic , that would of made sense... but $840 mil !! Something stinks in here, and it aint in the ventilation system. | |
Well, that's business. That said, DAH! will always hold a special place in my heart for the most fun I've ever had with telekinesis. They nerfed in the sequels. | |
As far as I know, Saboteur is complete and is being released December 8. I could be wrong, but I think they're basically releasing this and then going away.
Come back after playing Dark Reign 2, please. | |
Who's suprised? really. This should be a warning to any developer being eyed by that corporate cannibal 1)get a job with a gaming developer | |
Does this mean there is no hope for Battlefront 3? | |
They seem like completely run-of-the-mill RTSs... Particularly Dark Reign 2... Get resources, build shit to build the biggest army you can, steamroll the map. Can't say I'm the biggest RTS fan in the world though. | |
Well Pandemic did a lot of mediocre titles (especially lately)... so yeah Saboteur is completed and ready to be released, it has been handed off to EA Montreal's studio for some final polish and probably Patch support. As for the deal, well they got Bioware out of it... they are making a Star Wars MMO based on the KOTOR titles: SW:TOR and EA/Bio is hoping for it to be the "next WoW"... they blew enough shots with that even before WoW was first out already. They also have Mass Effect, Dragon Age and several other franchises... still the price is/was somewhat high xD Oh and btw. Take 2 already HAD the rights to Bioshock and everything around it, they paid $11 Mil. "just" for the development studio, while EA has not only bought the 2 dev-studios but rights to all their franchises e.g. KOTOR, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Mercenaries and all that stuff xD | |
The price was *absurdly* high, and should have been investigated further by anyone who knew about his former link to the company. In light of the prices that were paid, that's not just paying a premium, it's lining pockets. And people wonder why teh economy is in the dumps.... | |
Battlezone 2 wasn't exactly an RTS, at least not in the common sense. Dark Reign 2 came out in 2000, when what a run-of-the-mill RTS happened to be was something like Age of Empires or Command and Conquer. At the time, the fact that you had a free-floating camera that could actually spin around, and buildings could be rotated in full 3D, and the online interface it had really made it stand out to me. No one I know has heard of it unless they've heard of it from me, but I really think it was a gem in a pile of rocks that no one searched the pile of rocks for. :/ Looking back at it, I can understand why it looks like that in 2009, but the common conventions we've come to expect in an RTS simply weren't present at the time in games other than Dark Reign 2 and TA. | |
This just affirms that we are in for only "safe" games from EA for a while, so don't get your hopes up on any new IP's anytime soon. Unless Riccitello did pull a crapper and he gets busted for it. Maybe. | |
The curse of Auran strikes again. | |
I... I... | |
I think you're thinking of the medal of honor series | |
Sucks for those 200 people. But seriously, Pandemic, to me, didn't do all that much. Mercenaries was good mindless fun, and the Battlefront games were solid, but other than that, what did Pandemic do? Not much. And only 200 people worked there? That's pretty low. | |
gee just think if ea had bought take 2 and rockstar then what ... mers2 sucking was ea's fault ... sry for the employees though ... as for ea ... well i was always told if i can't say anything nice... but idgas... ea sucks | |
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Analyst Chews Out EA CEO Over Pandemic Closure
At least one industry analyst is incensed over Electronic Arts' decision to close down Pandemic Studios, saying CEO John Riccitiello should consider resigning over the debacle.
EA's announced its decision to close Pandemic Studios, laying off 200 employees in the process, earlier this week, barely two years after the studio was acquired. But Perry H. Rod of Market Rap is calling shenanigans, suggesting that Riccitiello made a ton of money on the deal and may have helped line the pockets of his former partners while EA shareholders are paying for it through stock value that has declined drastically since the acquisition took place.
EA announced its purchase of VG Holdings Corp., the parent company of both Pandemic and BioWare, in late 2007. The blockbuster deal saw the publisher pay private equity firm Elevation Partners over $800 million for the two studios, an "astronomical" price, according to Rod, when compared to similar deals made by Take Two, which purchased BioShock developer Irrational Games that same year for $11 million and Civilization studio Firaxis in 2006 for $27 million. Particularly troubling for Rod is the fact that Riccitiello was one of the founders of Elevation and made the deal only eight months after returning to EA to assume the role of chief executive.
"It would be a sad statement for shareholder activism and shareholder rights if Mr. Riccitello were to continue his tenure as CEO of Electronic Arts without a challenge. If a high profile chief executive essentially buys his own company, a deal like that should be put to the highest of standards. These results are the lowest of lows," Rod wrote. "There has not been a single developer in the video game industry that has been purchased for anywhere near this deal's 840 million dollar price tag, but the fact that it blew up in this way only two years later is what is especially outrageous. Mr. Riccitello ought to consider resigning his position for committing such a blatant act of self serving greed at the expense of EA's shareholders."
Ironically, his complaint comes on the same day that a NeoGAF user claiming to be a former Pandemic employee said the decision to close the studio was probably the right one. "Pandemic cost a lot to upkeep and, quite frankly, the last few products weren't up to snuff," he wrote. He also noted that "it probably doesn't look good for JR considering he made a cool 5 mil off of the sale of Pandemic/Bioware."
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