10 Beloved Video Game Studios That Publishers RUINED

5. Pandemic Studios

Yet another studio EA drove into the ground, for a time Pandemic Studios absolutely ruled the mid-2000s with a string of beloved franchises, including the original Star Wars: Battlefront, Mercenaries and Destroy All Humans!

The problem was, while all of these different properties were notable and had their fans, they weren’t gigantic successes. EA are a company that likes hoovering up every nickel and dime they can get their hands on, and as a result Pandemic were put onto new original projects to tap a bigger audience when they were purchased in 2008.

That led to the studio's final two games, which were both released in 2009. Lord of the Rings: Conquest was envisioned as the next big multiplayer hit, using the LOTR name as leverage, but it failed miserably in finding a playerbase (probably on account of it not being all that good). The second release was the criminally underrated The Saboteur but, again, it failed to really capture the imaginations of players.

After that, and a mere year after being bought by EA, the publisher began the process of shutting the studio down.

[JB]