Kotaku-Electronics Arts has shuffled off Pandemic Studios' Brisbane office, a reliable source tells Kotaku. The Australian developer was best known for Destroy All Humans! and its rumored development of an ill-fated Batman game.
According to the information we were provided, Pandemic's Brisbane staffers weren't necessarily laid off by EA corporate, which purchased the developer alongside BioWare in 2007. Instead, we were told that the studio was "set free" with the down under arm of Pandemic retaining its original IP and even its equipment.
"It was more of a 'Find a new publisher. Good luck.' kind of thing," according to the source. And you can keep the tea kettle, apparently. No mention was made of the fate of the other Pandemic Studios office, which is based in Los Angeles.
Pandemic Studios Brisbane was widely rumored to be hard at work on a video game adaptation of 2008's The Dark Knight. That project, while never officially announced, was also said to be canceled. Speaking to a second source familiar with the project late last year, we learned that a lack of direction and an already massive budget may have lead to EA cutting its losses.
New report from Skillsearch found that 22% of those surveyed had been laid off within the past 12 months.
It's a step forward for Stop Killing Games.
The Callisto Protocol director thinks the solution involves the right people, the right timing, and perhaps a little bit of AI
I don't agree with that. I WISH I could agree with that. But buying habits and customer opinions prove otherwise
We've seen developers in the AAA space try new things and ideas. More often than not, the customers aren't willing to give things a chance, or not enough people buy into the project for it to grow.
Creativity works better in the indie space because the budgets, pressures, and expectations aren't the same.
it's a nice idea and it worked during the PS2/PS3-era when AAA didn't cost hundreds of millions of dollars. smaller budgets and shorter development time left room for more creativity and more risk. a game didn't need to sell 4 million+ copies to break even. things are different now.
This is the guy who bragged about crunching his staff and having them work through the night. Crunch culture has lost more talent and done more damage to the industry than any other factor. Screw him.
