pandemic studios

Mercenaries [PS2 XBOX – Beta / Unused]

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is an open world action game developed by Pandemic Studios and published in 2005 by LucasArts for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. DCodes7 was able to find 2 unused cut scenes, one placeholder intro and one unused trailer still hidden in the final game. Also, from looking at the data on the disk it’s possible to see some E3 files (maybe a beta level / demo?) and a debug menu (disabled).

In the gallery below you can see some beta screens with:

  • Beta Jacob
  • Removed Blood?
  • A carbine with a scope (the scope isn’t in the final)

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O.S.S. [PC? – Concept]

In 2000, Pandemic Studios developed a game concept called “OSS”. It was set in World War II and the player was involved in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a United States intelligence agency, as the game’s title reveals.  OSS never entered production at Pandemic Studios for unknown reasons. The platform of the game was probably not decided yet, but we can speculate at least a PC version.

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Specwarrior [XBOX/PS2 – Cancelled]

Created by Pandemic Studios, Specwarrior is a cancelled third person shooter set in the Vietnam War that was  in development in 2002 / 2003. After some time the game was cancelled by its publisher, Midway. About a year later Pandemic released Full Spectrum Warrior (published by THQ), but it’s not clear if the published game used some assets from the unreleased project. Specwarrior was the reasons that lead Pandemic to file a lawsuit against Midway, because they cancelled the game to avoid payment.

The lawsuit claims Midway’s move was unwarranted, and says Midway owes money for services Pandemic completed during its months of work on the project. Pandemic is seeking damages of more than $4 million and some $750,000 in fees, according to a Reuters report.

Thanks to Hey Hey for the contribution!

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The Next Big Thing [Wii – Cancelled]

The Next Big Thing, also know as “No Limits Racing” is a cancelled Wii game, that was in development by Pandemic Studios Brisbane in 2008 / 2009. The gameplay was a mix between a racing game, a party game and a sandbox game, in which the player would have been able to race in a parody of L.A. streets, to jump on building rooftops, to fly in elicopters to collect items, to make crazy stunts and to raise more NPC “fans”. In July 2009, AustralianGamer released a video of the game in their YT channel.

The project was canned when Brisbane studio was closed down after being dropped by EA. As we can read on Tsumea:

Reports have come in confirming that the remaining employees at Pandemic Studios Brisbane have been let go after losing their bid in getting publisher interest for their Wii game called “The Next Big Thing” in the hope of finishing its development.

The open world reality show game was in production for the Wii by the second team at Pandemic Studios Brisbane before owner and publisher Electronic Arts let many staff go and cut loose the studio in early January. The final dozen or so remaining staff at Pandemic Brisbane were notified today that all avenues have been exhausted and were let go.

Thanks to Hey Hey, Robert Seddon and Dark ViVi for the contributions!

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