10 Video Game Studios Killed By Electronic Arts
7. Pandemic Studios (1998 - 2009)
Founded in 1998, Pandemic studios originally started off on the back of an equity investment by Activision. They produced two sequels for Activision's properties, Battlezone 2 and Dark Reign 2, before producing well known hits like Destroy all Humans, the first two original Star Wars: Battlefront titles and Full Spectrum Warrior.
In 2005 both Pandemic and BioWare joined forces under the private equity fund Elevation Partners. Their owners, VG Holding Corp, were subsequently purchased by EA.
Funnily enough this was exactly the moment things started to collapse at Pandemic. After being bought by EA, Pandemic released Mercenaries 2 and the poorly received Lord of the Rings: Conquest in 2008.
Then, less than two years after EA bought them, Pandemic were shut down. Only 35 of its "core IP" employees were given positions at EA's Los Angeles studio, and that was just to work on Pandemic's final game The Saboteur. The remaining 228 of Pandemic's employees were left jobless, including former CEO Josh Resnick.
But hey, at least we got this sweet Office Space parody of Pandemic's former employees smashing up a printer. We can only hope EA wanted that printer back.