Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is an action-adventure video game developed by Pandemic and published by LucasArts for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The game takes place in an open world, with elements of potential stealth gameplay and reputation-based social mechanics, and is set in a fictional multinational military campaign in North Korea. The player takes control of one of three main mercenary characters and completes contracts in the war-torn country for the purpose of profit and preventing nuclear war. The game was received favorably by critics, particularly praising its focus on explosive chaos. A sequel, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, was released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Following the closure of Pandemic in November 2009, Electronic Arts hired Danger Close Games to develop a second sequel under the working title Mercs Inc. The game was ultimately cancelled following the closure of Danger Close Games in 2013.