"New" EA is about quality, not quantity
That's why it bought us, says Pandemic.
Pandemic boss Josh Resnick believes Electronic Arts has turned a corner and is now committed to offering quality games.
He feels it was the reason the giant publisher splashed out USD 860 million to acquire Pandemic and BioWare last October, and is confident boss John Riccitello can eventually alter your opinion of EA.
"There was also a communication internally [from Riccitello] that stated, 'I'm serious about this path I'm putting the company on, and I'm creating a company where the BioWares and Pandemics will want to be a part of it'," Resnick told Next-Gen.
"It's going to change through action and rebuilding trust. He knows the future of EA's success is in empowering the really talented creative people and giving them what they need to stretch their wings. "
Doing that means leaving the developers alone and pitching in when asked, apparently, as well as taking care of promoting and shipping the game to as many people as possible around the world.
"Within EA I'm not distracted. I get to just focus on making great Pandemic games," added Resnick.
"And it makes sense. Why would they invest all that money in us if they're just going to change us?"
Resnick is keen to keep working on Mercenaries, but only if and when the passion is there. He seems quite unperturbed by the reputation EA has for milking a franchise and delivering clockwork yearly updates.
"We want to continue working on Mercenaries. Already we have things in store for Mercenaries 3. In our heads, I mean. We know where we want to take this franchise," explained Resnick.
"They will sequel the product if it makes sense to sequel the product and if they have the team behind it that's really passionate about it."
But, lest we get carried away, Resnick points out that Electronic Arts is not the only publisher having a rethink about its quality over quantity ratio.
"I think there's been a maturing among the executive ranks in the industry; realising it's better to cancel IP, not do IP, or start something fresh if you don't feel you're going to be able to deliver on gamers' expectations," concluded Resnick.
"It does not make sense to milk that cow to death. It just doesn't."
Mercenaries 2 will be out on PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS2 sometime after April this year.