Activision has announced that it has made an equity investment in the new development house Pandemic Studios, which was formed last week by former Activision employees Josh Resnick and Andrew Goldman.

　　In conjunction with the equity investment, Activision has also announced that it will publish five games from the new company, which will include the sequels to BattleZone and Dark Reign.

　　"Over the past few years, we have created an infrastructure to help set up newly formed development teams," states Robert Kotick, chairman and CEO of Activision. "We are very excited to be able to extend this same arrangement to Josh and Andrew, who have exhibited strong leadership and clear vision in production management and product development. Under their supervision, we believe that Pandemic will emerge as one of the finest developers in the business, and we look forward to a long and successful relationship."

　　"I can't imagine a better way to start a company. We're only a week old, yet we've got incredible talent and technology that's worked together to produce some of the industry's biggest hits," said Josh Resnick, president of Pandemic Studios. "I know that our passion for creating and playing amazingly fun, polished, and addictive games will come through in our products. And the opportunity is even more exciting knowing that Activision's powerful marketing, sales, and distribution organizations are behind us."

　　Resnick served most recently as a director of production at Activision as well as director of Dark Reign and producer for MechWarrior 2. Goldman previously served as director of BattleZone and Spycraft: The Great Game - he will be Pandemic's CEO.

　　Activision and Pandemic estimate their first title will be available the summer of 1999.