Following the shuttering of Pandemic Studios last month, EA is speaking out about what, besides some less-then-stellar products, contributed to the closure of the studio just a few weeks before their latest game, The Saboteur, made it out.
Speaking to Kotaku, CEO John Riccitiello says, "For good or for bad, we are taking down headcount in California because it is really expensive [to employ people there]." The remaining staff -- mostly the core team behind the Mercenaries franchise -- of the 200 let go at Pandemic have been relocated to EALA, located just 10 miles away. Riccitiello said that for EA it is over the twice the cost to keep development going in California, compared to its other studios in places like Canada and the U.K., due to things like the state's regulatory changes, and that fact that there are enticing tax incentives in other countries that provide subsidized publishing costs. Riccitiello goes on to say that, "The shift toward fewer titles and the acceleration towards digital is moving faster [than expected] ... In a world that used to be all PC, then used to be all console, now it's neither. It's not a packaged goods business any more."
Though Pandemic's offices are now a thing of recent memory, the company's brand and their franchises have been confirmed to live on through EALA. A sequel to The Saboteur is already being planned, while a new entry in the Mercenaries series, Mercs Inc., was just announced for 2010.
"We know the consumer likes the Mercenaries intellectual property, the Pandemic property, some of the key designers and their insights. We're hoping they're going to want Saboteur. I think they will. Then we'll probably sequel that too."
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