9 Amazing Video Game Developers Killed Off By Their Publishers

2. Pandemic Studios

Dead Space 3
Pandemic Studios

Founded: 1998

Defunct: 2009

What happened: One of the last greats of the Australian games industry, Pandemic Studios' closure in 2009 is yet another tragic upset to have occurred in the noughties, not least because it remains unclear as to why EA made the executive call to do so, beyond a wall of corporate jargon pertaining to asset consolidation and cost-cutting.

That a sizeable portion of Pandemic's workforce went on to find replacement careers at 343 Industries, Treyarch and Infinity Ward almost immediately. speaks volumes as to the quality of its former team and the respect its name demands.

Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, though. Had EA kept Pandemic going, it may well have been handed the task of rebooting its own Star Wars Battlefront series. As any member of DICE can surely attest to, it dodged a bullet at just the right time...

In this post: 
Dead Space
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.