What Happened ToThe Dark Knight?

16 Jan 2009 at 11:42:52 by Andy Alderson

Following rumours that EA cut ties with Pandemic Brisbane earlier in the week, it has since emerged that the troubled Dark Knight game was the catalyst for the split. 

According to Kotaku Australia editor David Wildgoose, the development of the Batman title effectively brought about the end Pandemic Brisbane's publishing deal with EA.

Not only did the Dark Knight game dent EA's budget, Wildgoose also asserts that the development process was essentially a comedy of errors. He claims:

1) Pandemic Brisbane spent six months working on a Batman title before EA specified it had to be a Dark Knight game, meaning a lot of work had to be scrapped. 

2) The project was rushed from the start as EA knew its ownership of the license would expire in December last year.

3) Pandemic decided to make an open-world Batman game, despite none of its team ever having worked on an open-world game.

4) Pandemic decided to use the same game engine as the upcoming WWII title, Sabatoeur, but struggled to make it compatible with an open-world structure.

Some of the Pandemic Brisbane team remain, working on a Wii title codenamed "The Next Big Thing." 

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