Several of our sources are telling us that the Pandemic studio in Brisbane has been let go by Electronic Arts as part of their cost reduction and evaluation moves previously announced. Our sources suggest the decision to break ties with the studio was a cost cutting move and nothing more.

The Brisbane studio that is located in Australia was acquired by EA with their purchase of Pandemic and BioWare in 2007. The Brisbane branch of Pandemic was best known for the first two chapters of the Destroy All Humans! franchise before the franchise was taken over by THQ and developer Sandblast.

As part of being set adrift by EA, our sources say that the company will get to keep its original intellectual property as well as the equipment. According to our sources, the Pandemic studio in Brisbane was working on at least one unannounced project, which is believed to have been an “open world reality show” that was tentatively titled, “The Next Big Thing” (which is believed to have been for the Wii platform).

Some of our sources suggest that Pandemic Brisbane was also rumored to have been developing a title based on “The Dark Knight” Batman movie. “The Dark Knight” game that was supposed to be in development at Pandemic Brisbane could have cost EA as much as $100 million in missed revenue since the game was never announced or finished. According to our sources, this was due to unhappiness with the direction of the title, but sources are also telling us that some of the problem was with Pandemic Brisbane’s inability to deliver the game on EA’s tight timetable.

After being cut loose by EA, the studio has had some layoffs to get its headcount under control. One of our sources suggests that the studio is at least intending to continue in some fashion if investors and a publisher can be found to continue with the IP that the studio has rights to continue to develop.