What The Hell Happened To Mercenaries?

The PS2 and Xbox era saw an abundance of games in the ‘AA’ space, as big-name publishers were willing to give middling budgets for developing games that were experimental. Many franchises that fans love today were born out of this market, while some enjoyed decent successes and others failed to remain relevant for a long time.
Pandemic Studios’ Mercenaries largely fits into the latter category, and remains a title that’s rarely brought up in discussions today - which ultimately begs the question, what the hell actually happened to Mercenaries?