Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is a third-person shooter video game developed by Pandemic Studios and published on January 11, 2005 by LucasArts for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The game features a open world environment set in North Korea in the near future. The player takes control of a mercenary and complete contracts in the war-torn country for profit and to prevent a nuclear war. Critics gave favorable reviews to the game, in particular praising its focus on explosive mayhem.

The Xbox version is currently compatible with the Xbox 360 as of the update dated April 18, 2007; however, many have experienced issues such as frequent freezing with its emulation.[citation needed]

The sequel, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, was released on August 31, 2008 in North America and on September 5, 2008 in Europe for the Microsoft Windows, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360 formats. Following Pandemic's closure in November 2009, Electronic Arts announced EA Los Angeles would be developing the next title in the series, a game called Mercs Inc.[