Today, Electronic Arts cut 1,500 jobs, 200 of which included Pandemic Studios, the developer behind Mercenaries, Full Spectrum Warrior, and Star Wars: Battlefront. At just over ten years old, the company had experienced a decent amount of success, having recently been developing The Saboteur which is scheduled to release on December 8, 2009. The Saboteur will finish out it’s final development stages at Playa Vista.  Some members will be relocated to EA Montreal, but not all.  Our best wishes go out to those who lost their employment. Pandemic Studios Closes

*Update*

A five year member of the ex-Pandemic team posted on NeoGAF today blaming the Pandemic management for the closure.

The reason why the studio closed down has everything to do with the existing Pandemic management. From what we were told, Pandemic management was given free reign to do as they please. Time and time again, they dropped the ball with bad decisions (promoting/keeping people based on loyalty, no production accountability, misallocation of resources, poor milestone objectives, no mentoring, etc.). It’s a true shame, as there was a lot of talent and passion at the studio.

He also went on to say that this was a disappointment because The Saboteur is their best game yet despite the disappointments with Mercenaries 2 and Lord of the Rings: Conquest.

EA is totally sending Saboteur out to die.