Up until today, Pandemic Studios’ upcoming PS3 action game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames was without a publisher, but that is no longer the case because Pandemic and EA have signed a co-publishing deal today that will see EA handling the worldwide marketing, distribution and sales duties for Mercs 2. This type of deal has become quite popular with EA recently it seems, with Half-Life 2 and Hellgate: London co-publishing deals in place with Valve and Namco Bandai respectively.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Pandemic Studios and to be working together to make Mercenaries 2: World in Flames a global blockbuster,” said EA Partners vice president and general manager, David DeMartini. “EA Partners is committed to providing the world’s best development studios with access to EA’s unrivaled global publishing resources, helping gamemakers reach the widest possible audience.”
“Pandemic Studios is excited to join forces with EA Partners to give Mercenaries 2: World in Flames a spectacular global launch,” said Pandemic Studios CEO Andrew Goldman. “Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will set the bar for explosive, open world action games in the next generation, and everyone at Pandemic is excited that fans will be able to get their hands on it later this year.”
What’s also big news is that today’s announcement reaffirmed Mercs 2 to still be a PS3-exclusive title when it ships this holiday season, even though rumors have implied for a while now that a version for the Xbox 360 is also in the works. Most next-gen releases are going multiplatform these days, so it’s probably only a matter of time before it lands on the 360, but we shall see soon enough I suppose. Either way, I just hope it’s a lot better than the original- despite the mainstream acclaim it received I thought it sucked…