EA confirmed the development of a new game in the Mercenaries series today. There's no detail in the announcement, just that a game with a working title of "Mercs Inc." is in development at EALA, the new home for the "core team" of Pandemic guys who weren't sent packing in last week's layoffs. Weirdly enough, the release is titled "Pandemic Studios Announces 'Mercs Inc'," even though that sounds like more of a team now, not a location. Either way, there's no confirmation in the release that anyone actually affiliated with the previous Mercs games is on this one. In fact, there's very little confirmation of anything other than "hey, this is a game." Even the title is still subject to change.

So why throw together an announcement like this with no real details? Well, it seems that footage of the game has leaked out of the closing Pandemic studio. The game--or at least, the footage--makes out like it's a multiplayer-focused take on Mercenaries, using what appears to be Mercenaries 2 technology. Of course, with no announced ship date, there's probably plenty of time for that engine to be fully enhanced and updated to look a little newer.

Check out the leaked trailer for yourself, though you should probably hurry. I suspect someone will pull it offline at some point today. 
 
  

EA confirmed the development of a new game in the Mercenaries series today. There's no detail in the announcement, just that a game with a working title of "Mercs Inc." is in development at EALA, the new home for the "core team" of Pandemic guys who weren't sent packing in last week's layoffs. Weirdly enough, the release is titled "Pandemic Studios Announces 'Mercs Inc'," even though that sounds like more of a team now, not a location. Either way, there's no confirmation in the release that anyone actually affiliated with the previous Mercs games is on this one. In fact, there's very little confirmation of anything other than "hey, this is a game." Even the title is still subject to change.

So why throw together an announcement like this with no real details? Well, it seems that footage of the game has leaked out of the closing Pandemic studio. The game--or at least, the footage--makes out like it's a multiplayer-focused take on Mercenaries, using what appears to be Mercenaries 2 technology. Of course, with no announced ship date, there's probably plenty of time for that engine to be fully enhanced and updated to look a little newer.

Check out the leaked trailer for yourself, though you should probably hurry. I suspect someone will pull it offline at some point today. 
 
  

..."it's a multiplayer-focused take on Mercenaries, using what appears to be Mercenaries 2 technology." 
Uh-oh   

"using what appears to be Mercenaries 2 technology."
 
No thanks.

Looks kinda fun, strange announcement though, oh lawd.

This looks like it would be a really fun multiplayer

Woaaah kick in the face pandemic

Looks as bad as Mercs 2.

The game is probably in the early stages of development, judging by the mannequin-esque character models. I imagine this is less of an "official trailer" and more of a disgruntled employee showing the world what's behind the curtain because he got axed. The announcement was likely just Pandemic covering up a potential PR mess.
 
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this game never hits shelves.

I'm not too sure if a multiplayer focused Mercs game will be all that great. I loved the Mercs single player experience (both Mercs 1 and Mercs 2, despite the latter's technical issues), but I don't see that translating well into multiplayer. But you never know, I'll have to wait to see more before I make any big decisions about it.

I haven't played either Mercs game and I doubt I'll start with this one.

Well I suppose removing the computers AI is one way to deal with a lot of the technical issues in the mercs series 
 
¬_____________¬
 
Hmmmmmm.  Looks potentially fun from that alone... but it looks like walking is suicide...

It looks like Saints Row multiplayer to me.... but in a jungle instead of a city.  Eh... I'm not really interested.

this already sucks balls

looks kinda like battlefield heroes. but with more explosions... maybe they are going the free to play route with it like battlefield heroes or maybe a smaller live arcade game like battlefield 1943

" No EA that's ok, thanks for trying though. "

Looks boss IMO.

Looks outstandingly generic.

Battlefield Heroes meets Mercenaries, sounds good to me :P

Mercs 2 engine? Take your fail and get out

" Looks outstandingly generic. "

Saints Row 3?

" could be awesome if done right.    "

Looks meh.
 
But I have to admit seeing 3 teabaggers get run over was funny.

So you fire your studio and then announce their next game? Really?

Pffffftttttt

Really? Corpse humping in a trailer? Really? I guess it fits with the average 'gamer'. Oh well.

Right now, the game looks like crap...

looks like a dlc pack or something shit

That looks... really really brown grey.
Like, I hate to play the "generic bland color card" complaint, but really... this time it is really ridiculous. Aside from the explosion at the very end... EVERYTHING was a slight variation of the same color. The car fucking blends in with the dirt.
And it doesn't help that the graphics are pretty poor too.

First one was amazing,  Second one was shitty, but still kind of fun.  I'm more excited for the Saboteur than I am another Mercs game.

Do not want. Ever.

Mercs is fun, but I would feel a whole lot better if they actually tried to make it not look like shit.

Looks and sounds like shit.

" Do not want. Ever. "

What's sad if that they showed the exact same sequences with better graphics most people would love it. But hey, I'll take the bashing of a seemingly shitty game any way I can, even if it's only because it doesn't look great. Keep it up ^_^

That does not look like Mercenaries. It's obviously early, but that was not Mercenaries. I'm all fine with them changing a little bit of what it was but to overhaul it like that... wtf. 

More snus references!

EA sickens me.  This shows their only interest in Pandemic was their IP's.  Buy the company, make a couple of games, then lay everyone off so you can sequel the crap out of the titles until their dilution and death.  What a waste.

Focus on better destruction, not multiplayer.

Needs more air strikes (Mercs' standout feature) and less brown. Jeez, I couldn't make heads or tails with all those earth tones.

At least the first game had some seance of realism to it , this just looks like a crappy gta/saints row clone. still guess we are going to have to wait and see how it turns out

" Really? Corpse humping in a trailer? Really? I guess it fits with the average 'gamer'. Oh well. "

NO. GET OUT. Mercs 1 was great, Mercs 2 was a failure, and this looks like crap, where the hell were the explosions? 

I'm glad the announcement was because of the leaked trailer, otherwise this would've been in fucking awful taste.  And the trailer looks pretty uninteresting.  I'll be buying The Saboteur though.

Timely.

first thing I noticed was that the driving looks substantially better than it was in Mercs 2. And it was fucking bad in Mercs 2. As such, I'm optimistic. I haven't given up on this series yet. The first one was bad Ass.