It was incredibly surprising to hear that Pandemic — a studio hard at work on the The Saboteur — had been eradicated by Electronic Arts during a wave of layoffs. Despite the surprising turn of events, however, a former Pandemic employee believes EA did the right thing, and also added that The Saboteur is being sent to its death.
“The reason why the studio closed down has everything to do with the existing Pandemic management,” an anonymous poster tells NeoGAF. “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, mis-allocation 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.”
This former employee does not blame EA, who “probably made the right decision.” However, he does blame EA for the cold death that he believes The Saboteur will face.
“One more thing I will say: EA is totally sending Saboteur out to die. And it’s a f*cking shame. It’s easily Pandemic’s best game yet. Of course, I am a bit biased having worked on the game for so long. If you were disappointed with Mercs2 and LOTR (who wasn’t) and enjoyed previous Pandemic games, give Saboteur a shot.”
The Saboteur is out in December, and I have been looking forward to it, so we shall have to see how it goes. I hope it does well, because if anything, Pandemic deserves one last hurrah.
