Ex-Pandemic employee: The Saboteur is being sent to die

A recently laid off Pandemic employee has spoken on the affair, saying that Pandemic management is more at fault for the studio's closure, rather than corporate EA.

He does say, however, EA is to blame for mishandling The Saboteur - essentially sending it to die. He describes The Saboteur as being Pandemic's best game yet, a true swan song for the developer.

[Noctis Aftermath]

i watched a gameplay video of it and it was good, if GTA was set in france during world war 2 it would be almost exactly the same as saboteur.

[gauntletpython]

More like 'GTA with good art direction and gameplay'.

[Greywulf]

im buying just because the guy has that beard.

[badz149]

and in recent cases, they are (or were) owned by big companies! Ensemble with M$ and now Pandemic with EA and RARE is pretty much KIA (killed in action) under M$ because they are in no way or shape the RARE that we used to know!

[Nihilism]

LOTR conquest is THE WORST game i've bought in a very long time. It had ps2 graphics on pc and played like sh**, three kings on ps2 was a much better game in every conceivable way, i'm no pandemic fan after that effort, i'm just glad I was able to return it, I would have been very pissed if I gave money to those c**kheads.

Another lame dev bites the dust, I can't say i'll shed a tear for them

[StanLee]

So it it confirmed Pandemic is being closed? I knew when EA spent all that money on the studio they would not be able to maintain the studios overhead. To maintain studios in the this current generation is a financial burden if the projects don't meet expectations at retail.

[saint_john_paul_ii]

this is not good at all. So much potential out of this game

[Raoh]

that's a damn shame

[gauntletpython]

The last game that was 'sent to die' sold 500K + over 3 platforms. Hopefully The Saboteur has the same fate :P

[TheAntiFanboy]

What last game would that be? Because I'm pretty sure this is the only game being transferred over from one studio to another following a studio closure, thus I can't think of any previous games in Pandemic's portfolio that was "sent to die" by EA...

[keysy420]

this game should come out in the summer in a dead spot right now its gonna get the dj hero treatment. please dont release this game ea i want it and if you release it you lost a sale because im buying alot of other crap first/.

[bigrudowsky]

I think theyre the ones behind the battlefront games if so then ill definitely give it a shot.

[Adamalicious]

They did do the battlefront games.

I'm waiting for reviews on this one, but it does look pretty cool. Here's hoping it's actually good.

[Sigh]

EA has been doing great introducing new Ips this gen.I don't wanna see this go away!

[TheAntiFanboy]

Saboteur isn't going away. It's getting moved to another developer so they can prep it for release. That's what the guy means by "being sent to die".

[Sigh]

thanks!

[W S K]

so...those ba$tard$ are goin´ to shut down pandemic!? >:(

just because of that i´m going to buy The Saboteur.
I like and support pandemic!
and i would´ve loved to see a Mercenaries 3
but EA is like a virus.
They keep sucking every developer studio dry that they can buy and then throw ´em directly into the trash can :(

[Grandreaper9999]

Terrible thing to see, huge companies buying smaller companies and axing the little guys that do the work!

Ok,ok, it's probably not at all like that. I'm still a little miffed about Ensemble getting the axe...grrr. *shakes fist* If only they were able to release a new AoM..

[ThePostalDudeX]

Don't worry guys EA said themselves that Borderlands was being sent to die and look how that turned out. Just buy and enjoy the game and wait for sales numbers to come in and that will tell you.

[RadientFlux]

I'm guessing "... sent to die" translate to "we're not going to spend any money advertising this game".

I still have high hopes for Saboteur, but with a lack of advertising the game needs to get some amazing reviews. If not the game will probably just sit on store shelves gathering dust and be forgotten in a few months time.

[PantherDST]

I'll have to wait an see some reviews of the game beofre buying. I had every intention of buying the game but now I'll hold off. Why... if the game has errors and bug who will patch it now that the studio is gone. Sure EA will ensure a patch is done, but it will take twice as long since they are unfamiliar with the code. All in all the game looks good but I'm going to wait this out since they closed the studio.

[chak_]

Funny, I was looking at some gameplay footage this morning on GT, and I was like "man, is that game about to release? no way I'm buying that mess".

It seriously looks...meh. I just hope I'm wrong, sounds good on the paper, but this article makes me feel I might be right sadly

[Sangria]

From what I played of The Saboteur, just imagine The Godfather 2 in black and white with red nazis and you have a good idea of the game's context and weaknesses.

[micro_invader]

I spent many a days playing the Battlefront games that Pandemic developed. They were incredibly fun but their latest games have been lacking in the fun factor. It's sad to see them go but maybe some of them wil form up and start a new studio.

All I know now is that Battlefront 3 will probably never happen, that angers me the most.