Despite the closure of the physical offices of Pandemic Studios, the originators of the Mercenaries series of open-world action games, EA has announced that a new Mercenaries game is in development at its EA LA studio under the Pandemic label, where a number of ex-Pandemic staffers were relocated in order to further develop intellectual property under EA.

EA senior VP Nick Earl enthused: “We are very excited to announce a new installment in the popular Mercenaries series because it demonstrates our continued commitment to Pandemic’s rich catalog of intellectual properties.

“From the studio at EA LA, a core creative team is forging new ground and conceptualizing new ideas for this exciting franchise.”

Under the working title of Mercs Inc., existence of this newly announced game was unofficially revealed by way of a leaked video (which you can view below) which showed early concept-level footage of what appears to be (and is reportedly) a fully cooperative experience, with a special focus on playing with friends.

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According to a post on the game’s community site, EA’s open-world World War II game, The Saboteur, has gone gold just in the nick of time for its worldwide release on December 4th in the UK, and December 8th in North America. From the post:

“I am very proud to communicate today that The Saboteur has officially gone ‘GOLD’ on all 3 planned platforms (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 & PC).

“This has been a very difficult week for Pandemic Studios, but does not change the fact that a team of amazing people worked very hard to make The Saboteur a great game that fans will be able to enjoy this holiday season.”

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In the wake of rumours hitting yesterday, and as part of EA’s recent round of layoffs and restructuring plans, it’s been announced that Pandemic Studios has been closed.

Responsible for games such as Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars: Battlefront, Mercenaries and the upcoming The Saboteur, Pandemic Studios was founded in 1998 by way of an equity investment by Activision. After opening a satellite studio in Brisbane, Australia in 2000, Pandemic entered a joint partnership with RPG stalwarts Bioware in 2005, with investment backing from Elevation Partners.

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EA and Pandemic Studios have announced that their upcoming open-world action adventure The Saboteur will be available across Europe and North America on the 8th of December. The game will be available for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Set in 1940s Nazi-occupied France, the game is inspired by a true story and stars Sean Devlin, an Irish race car driver who is trapped behind enemy lines. Sean begins a journey of revenge through open-world Paris as, aided by the French resistance and British intelligence, he sabotages Nazi operations by derailing trains and blowing up zeppelins using various weapons, explosives and vehicles.

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In a rumour that could very well prove true in the current economic climate, it’s being reported that the Australian division of Pandemic Studios has been shut down or, more accurately, cut loose from current owners, EA. One of the developers at the studio commented on the events:

“It was more of a ‘Find a new publisher. Good luck.’ kind of thing.”

Pandemic, Brisbane, have apparently been ‘set free’ from EA, being allowed to retain all original intellectual property, staff and office equipment. No news yet on how the Los Angeles-based division of Pandemic is affected, if at all.

The Australian studio is known for its work on the Destroy All Humans franchise, and was reported to be working on the game adaptation of the Batman movie, The Dark Knight, which had, again according to rumour, been cancelled due to lack of direction on the project and spiralling development costs. The studio is said to now be working on a Wii party game of some description.

Confirmation as it’s available