Before EA acquired the Star Wars brand, before LucasArt was closed, there were two quality and unforgettable Battlefront titles.
Life has many ups and downs. Yesterday you may have been on top, but there is no guarantee that you won’t lose everything the next day. The same goes for Pandemic Studios. The 2000s saw the spectacular rise of a young potential developer, gaining a foothold in the gaming industry and receiving special affection from gamers. Only then will the young studios seem to be merely going this far, eventually stopping after ten years of dedication. We will take a look at the history of this once famous studio and the legacy it leaves.
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In 1998, Josh Resnick and Andrew Goldman, two developers of Activision, decided that they would work better when owning a separate studio. So “steamed pear!” they founded Pandemic Studios. When it was first established, Pandemic agreed to make five games for Activision in exchange for $ 10 million in funding with the right to hold Battlezone and Dark Reign: The Future of War, two quite successful brands. The first two games of the studio are also part 2 of the two brands. In the early years, the Pandemic did not have much reputation.
Pandemic gained attention when working with LucasArt to create Star Wars The Clone Wars in 2002. The Clone Wars is closely linked with Attack of the Clones and continues the events immediately after the movie. Although not a very special game, The Clones Wars is also quite good and worth playing. From here, LucasArts and Pandemic began to work closely together. Right in 2002, Pandemic, with the vision of an online shooter with high tactics, large-scale battles in the world of Star Wars, began to develop the first Battlefront game.
In 2004, besides the highly acclaimed Full Spectrum Warrior, Pandemic also officially launched Star Wars Battlefront. While the single-player is not quality, the game’s focus is the epic and epic screenplay. Inspired by the Battlefield series’s large-scale battles, Battlefront brings the classic battles in the Star Wars series into the game when the two factions have to control the enemy headquarters. Each match can have up to 32 players on the console and 64 players on the PC. Besides the infantry with five classes, Battlefront also provides the means of combat and movement of the film such as AT-AT, X-wing, Tie Fighter, and the two opposing sides, depending on the version’s context. Items that can each have a 3rd party such as the Wookies, Jawas, … They can be neutral, against one or both sides, the player can capture both of their bases to reduce the presence of surname. The most memorable thing is that each faction can participate in 1 NPC hero like Luke or Darth Vader in a limited time. Also, the game has Galactic Conquest, a turn-based tactical mode quite simple but addictive.
In 2004, besides the highly acclaimed Full Spectrum Warrior, Pandemic also officially launched Star Wars Battlefront. While the single-player is not quality, the game’s focus is the epic and epic screenplay. Inspired by the Battlefield series’s large-scale battles, Battlefront brings the classic battles in the Star Wars series into the game when the two factions have to control the enemy headquarters. Each match can have up to 32 players on the console and 64 players on the PC. Besides the infantry with five classes, Battlefront also provides the means of combat and movement of the film such as AT-AT, X-wing, Tie Fighter, and the two opposing sides, depending on the version’s context. Items that can each have a 3rd party such as the Wookies, Jawas, … They can be neutral, against one or both sides, the player can capture both of their bases to reduce the presence of surname. The most memorable thing is that each faction can participate in 1 NPC hero like Luke or Darth Vader in a limited time. Also, the game has Galactic Conquest, a turn-based tactical mode quite simple but addictive.
Battlefront was a huge success, selling 4 million copies and being highly rated by the Star Wars fan community. Simultaneously, it is one of the rare online shooters attracting many console players when PC dominates single and multiplayer shooters. The success of Battlefront helped Pandemic’s reputation soar in the gaming industry, bringing the studio to its peak.
When the new Battlefront fever broke out not long ago, in 2005, Pandemic made an unbelievable when simultaneously launching three classic titles in just one year. That’s Star Wars Battlefront II, Destroy All Human! And Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. Which stood out even more than Star Wars Battlefront II.
The single-player mode of Part 2 is no longer available, but it is invested in both quantity and quality, worth a try. The multiplayer part is still the core of core gameplay while adding some new content to improve gameplay. Especially now, both sides’ heroes are no longer NPCs, but if the player meets a specific requirement in the match, he can incarnate into Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader in Star Wars and fight with strength and ability. Ultimate in the middle of the game. Battlefront II received critical acclaim from both the professional and the fans, arguably a huge improvement over the first season. By 2007, the game had sold 7 million copies and was considered a resounding success. , especially on Xbox and PS2.
With three major successful games in 2005, Pandemic became the village’s focus and was extremely popular with the gaming community. Unfortunately, after that incredible success chain, it was Pandemic’s decline. In late 2005, Pandemic Studios merged with Bioware. In 2007, EA spent 860 million USD on buying the alliance of these two studios. This is expected to be beneficial for both developers as there will be ample funding to focus on developing next-gen PS3 and Xbox 360 games. EA’s Pandemic acquisition made fans worried because EA famous for acquiring small game studios and then closing them down to gain ownership of their intellectual property (game rights, characters, development rights, etc.). After three games, Mercenaries 2: World in Flame, Destroy All Human! 2, Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers are not appreciated. Pandemic is said to be falling in style and needs to do something impressive to regain fame.
In 2009, The Dark Knight was released and created a terrible fever, so far the film is at the top of the best movies of all time. And to take advantage of that craze, EA wanted a game to follow The Dark Knight. When Pandemic was given the responsibility to develop the game The Dark Knight, they realized the mistake of letting EA buy it. The development process encountered numerous difficulties with limited resources and technical problems when building a large open world, a bad engine. And above all, because this is a movie-based game, the game must release the movie before the fever cools, which means Pandemic faces an unimaginable deadline. After the game was delayed and missed the movie’s premiere in July 2008, EA announced that the project was canceled, causing the company to cut $ 100 million in profit. Not long after, EA closed the Pandemic branch in Brisbane, Australia. It is still thought that Batman: The Dark Knight is a very potential project but never came true.
In early 2009, Pandemic launched The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. The game was a failure with average reviews and meager revenue. At that time, the future of Pandemic was too gray. Only one ray of hope was called The Saboteur, an open-world game titled World War II. Unfortunately, before the game launched, EA declared announced to close Pandemic Studios in November 2009. EA fired all studio founders and 200 employees in a significant restructuring. Thirty-five people were transferred to EA Los Angeles to complete The Saboteur. A month later, The Saboteur was released as a farewell to the famous studio of this time. The closure of Pandemic also caused unfinished projects such as Mercenaries 3, No Limits Racing, and Part 2 of The Saboteur to be officially not seen in the light.
After Pandemic was shut down, game developers sought new opportunities at studios such as 343 Industries, Respawn Entertainment, Infinity Ward, Treyarch, … It’s a pity for a talented and creative developer. Like Pandemic, especially when most of their IPs are now in EA’s hands. However, their legacy will surely be remembered by the generation of Xbox and PS2 gamers, especially when Destroy All Humans is coming! It will be remade and released in 2020.
