JAN. 13, 2009 • Electronic Arts closes Pandemic’s Brisbane, Australia studio. The creative team was noted for the Destroy All Humans and Full Spectrum Warrior series. Reports circulated that confusion and delays in the developing Batman: The Dark Knight contributed to the decision to shutter the studio. A week later, the publisher closed its Black Box studio in Vancouver, Canada. Black Box had been creating Need For Speed racing games since 2002.
Impact: In 2007, Electronic Arts acquired the development companies Bioware and Pandemic (together the VG Holding Group) for over $600 million. At the time it was the largest acquisition of a pure developer ever. After having stagnant revenue in the $3 billion range from 2003 to 2007, EA has seen revenue grow significantly in fiscal 2008 and 2009. For the first nine months of 2009 revenue was up 32% over 2008 to $3.35 billion. However, this also marked the eighth consecutive quarter where EA showed a net loss. For the first nine months of 2009, losses have exceeded $1 billion. Clearly some major cuts had to be made and that includes some of EA’s top development talent. There is now a lot more top development talent on the open market.
