AustralianGamer has posted a news item which reveals a bombshell about Pandemic Studios in Brisbane. The rumour is that Pandemic Studios Brisbane has been working on The Dark Knight movie license for the past few years, and it's reported that the title has just been cancelled due to development delays and the development team made redundant or relocated to other projects.
While it was known that a Dark Knight game was in development somewhere after actor Gary Oldman mentioned that he did some voice acting work for it, no studio has been linked to the game until now. Analysts have predicted that the license holder, Electronic Arts, missed an opportunity to cash in on the box office breaking movie release to a tune of $100 million dollars.
More details at AustralianGamer.
Ouch. Would they really
Ouch. Would they really cancel it, though? I imagine that they must be pretty far along even with delays - even if they missed an enormous opportunity with the game not making the movie release, it would make more sense to just finish it off in time for the DVD release, right? They ought to be able to recoup SOME of their expenses. Although I suppose with Lego Batman and Arkam Asylum coming out now... :/ I guess we'll have to wait for confirmation, even if that 'no comment' is a little ominous.
There's a story there, and I'd be curious to read a post-mortem here or on Gamasutra about it sometime. Clearly something Went Wrong in a pretty spectacular fashion for an established studio like Pandemic to stumble this badly. Was this the Brisbane studio's first next gen title?
Hope the staff are ok.
Hopefully Pandemic doesn't start laying off staff and they can simply be shifted over into other projects in production. Although with EA owning Pandemic we all know how quickly they have been in the past to lay off staff whenever the bottom line isn't loking as rosy as they like. :(
has this been confirmed
has this been confirmed yet?
well...
insiders will confirm it
17 people let go? Confirmed
17 people let go? Confirmed :(
The scuttle butt is that the
The scuttle butt is that the studio in Australia is in danger of closing, how accurate that is who knows.
Bit weird considering that pre-EA Pandemic Brisbane have always been a well run studio hitting milestones etc.
Here we go blame the publisher
This has nothing to do with EA as a whole. By all accounts, if the word leaking it's way out of Pandemic is true. The cancelled title has been in trouble for a long time. This is rumoured to be due to a serious internal problem directly related to the management of said title. Just in case that was not already completely obvious by the game missing the movie launch.
Wasn't blaming the
Wasn't blaming the publisher, just a bit weird.
I have mates who work for both Pandemic and EA Melbourne so I don't have any biase against EA.
From what I've heard there is only one development team now, working on a WII title.
Yep. It's true.
From what I gather, it's nothing to do with Pandemic or EA. The blame lies at Hollywoods feet. I don't profess to know much about the gaming industry, but it would seem to me that movie licence titles are more trouble than they are worth. Whenever movie based games don't have their plug pulled by the higher-ups, sacrificing jobs in the process, the game is almost always a flop due to the ridiculous deadline developers must adhere to. Personally, whenever I see a movie-game, I hiss and throw holy water at it. Does ANYONE buy those games?
I would, but some jerk has
I would, but some jerk has always thrown water all over them.
It was Warner Brothers who
It was Warner Brothers who pulled the plug due to wanting its own start up games division to take over. From what I hear they are using all the great art and code which was generated over the two years of developement.
LOL yeah WB did it!
LOL yeah WB did it!
Not. Boat missed anyone?
Not. Boat missed anyone?
Dark Knight
What a tough license to develop for - you really want to do it 'right'
Perhaps there was some conflict about the vision of the game between all relevant parties?(developer, publisher, Hollywood)
Pandemic have a strong, mature, professional track record - hope this story will end with some kind of good news...
Marty
Bit behind the times there -
Bit behind the times there - there was no happy ending to this. :/ Sometimes, it really is just a tragedy.
2009 looks rosy
I can't say I'm surprised by this. Bit disappointing that it's happened, but, not surprised at all. I wonder how bad things will get with the growing recession in 2009.
Eidos and Rocksteady games are doing Batman, Arkham Asylum
and it looks great,so much better than any stupid movie game.
Pandemic Bris
The Bris studio finds out TODAY if it will close or be picked up by a new publisher.
Anon
I hear its closing this
I hear its closing this week.
Any new news/confirmation?
Now they are supposed to
Now they are supposed to find out tomorrow (Tuesday). The staff have been mucked around with this for months......
Do you know how it went?
Do you know how it went?
To the best of my knowledge
To the best of my knowledge the Pandemic staff are now unemployed.