Pandemic Studios
Pandemic Studios is a video game developer notable for creating destructible environments that is based in Los Angeles, California and Brisbane, Australia. Recently, their major hits have been Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Battlefront II, Destroy All Humans! and Mercenaries.
History
The company's president is Josh Resnick and its CEO is Andrew Goldman — both formerly worked at Activision, and Pandemic was founded with an equity investment by Activision in 1998 (investors include Bono from U2). Pandemic's first two games, Battlezone II and Dark Reign 2, were both sequels to Activision games.
In 2000, Pandemic opened a satellite studio in the Brisbane suburb of Fortitude Valley. The first project was Army Men RTS, a console RTS game using the Dark Reign 2 engine. This studio would later develop Destroy All Humans!.
In 2003, the Los Angeles studio moved from its founding location at Santa Monica to a high-rise building in Westwood.
In November 2005, it was announced that Pandemic and BioWare would be joining forces, with private equity fund Elevation Partners investing in the partnership. However, both companies will retain their brands and identities[1].
Teams
There are currently several development teams inside Pandemic:
- Full Spectrum Warrior team, responsible for the original game as well as its sequel, Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers.
- Star Wars team, who developed the Star Wars: Battlefront series.
- The Mercenaries team, is currently working on a sequel, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, which will be published by EA.
- Project B,Q,Y,Z teams, currently working on several unannounced projects and the recently announced Saboteur, a game chronicling the adventures of a French resistance fighter during WWII.
- Brisbane Team, working on another game in the Destroy All Humans! franchise with THQ.
Games developed
- Battlezone II: Combat Commander (1999)
- Dark Reign 2 (2000)
- Triple Play 2002 (2002)
- Army Men RTS (2002)
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2002)
- Full Spectrum Warrior (2004)
- Star Wars Battlefront (2004)
- Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005)
- Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (2005)
- Destroy All Humans! (2005)
- Destroy All Humans! 2 (2006)
- Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers (2006)
- Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (2007)
Games planned
- Saboteur (TBA)
- Pandemic also has four projects planned simply entitled Projects B, Q, Y, and Z.