On the heels of the announcement that Electronic Arts is eliminating 1,500 positions, comes the closing of Pandemic Studios.  A reported 200 people were laid off from the video game development studio best known for the Mercenaries series and Star Wars: Battlefront.

The shuttering is even more shocking considering that EA purchased Pandemic along with Bioware for $860 million back in 2007.  EA has said that “Pandemic’s brand and franchises will live on”.  It will be interesting to see how the closing affects next month’s release of The Saboteur which will be Pandemic’s last developed title.