Electronics Arts has shuffled off Pandemic Studios' Brisbane office, a reliable source tells Kotaku. The Australian developer was best known for Destroy All Humans! and its rumored development of an ill-fated Batman game.
According to the information we were provided, Pandemic's Brisbane staffers weren't necessarily laid off by EA corporate, which purchased the developer alongside BioWare in 2007. Instead, we were told that the studio was "set free" with the down under arm of Pandemic retaining its original IP and even its equipment.
"It was more of a 'Find a new publisher. Good luck.' kind of thing," according to the source. And you can keep the tea kettle, apparently. No mention was made of the fate of the other Pandemic Studios office, which is based in Los Angeles.
Pandemic Studios Brisbane was widely rumored to be hard at work on a video game adaptation of 2008's The Dark Knight. That project, while never officially announced, was also said to be canceled. Speaking to a second source familiar with the project late last year, we learned that a lack of direction and an already massive budget may have lead to EA cutting its losses.
According to our source, the allegedly now-closed Brisbane studio was working on an "open world reality show" game called The Next Big Thing for the Wii. It's unclear if the studio will continue to work on that particular project outside of the bounds of EA's ownership.
We're following up with both Electronic Arts and Pandemic Studios Brisbane to get clarification.