EA is 'best fit' for Mercenaries 2, says Pandemic

Pandemic Studios president Josh Resnick has welcomed the switch in publishers for the Mercenaries series from LucasArts to Electronic Arts.

Speaking to GI.biz sister site Eurogamer.net, Resnick said, "Lucas was a great partner for us on Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and EA will be a great partner on Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

"Each partner has their strengths, and EA is the best fit for Mercs 2," he added.

The original Mercenaries was published on PS2 and Xbox in 2005, but the sequel is currently down as a PS3 exclusive - although rumours that an Xbox 360 version is also in development persist.

Mercenaries 2 is due out in time for Christmas 2007 and, according to Resnick, it will feature significant improvements over the first game.

"We've built a new engine from the ground up. Mercenaries 2 is built on a totally new next-gen engine that will allow our bad-ass Mercs to take the action to a level that wasn't possible on earlier platforms," he explained.

"Aside from dealing with the scale and detail of next generation games, the engine has a fundamentally different architecture to deliver a much bigger open-world experience."

For more from Resnick, visit Eurogamer.net.