EA Has Cancelled Black Panther And Shut The Developer Down

EA’s
newest
football
game
doesn’t
quite
perform
up
to
standards
and
suddenly
the
publisher
goes
into
meltdown.

After
recently
culling
Codemasters
and
ditching
the
WRC
license,
EA
has
now
shuttered
Cliffhangar
Games,
thereby
also
cancelling
its
Black
Panther
game.

IGN
broke
the
standard
after
somehow
managing
to
acquire
an
internal
email
sent
by
EA
Entertainment
president
Laura
Miele.
According
to
Miele,
this
and
the
recent
layoffs
are
to
“”sharpen
our
focus
and
put
our
creative
energy
behind
the
most
significant
growth
opportunities.”

Part
of
this
new
“creative
energy”
is
to
shut
down
Cliffhanger
Games.
The
studio
was
founded
in
2023
and
based
in
Seattle,
and
was
working
on
a
Black
Panther
game
in
collaboration
with
Marvel.
Very
little
of
the
game
has
been
shown
since
its
announcement
back
in
2023,
though.

“These
decisions
are
hard,”
Miele
wrote
in
the
internal
Email.
“They
affect
people
we’ve
worked
with,
learned
from,
and
shared
real
moments
with.
We’re
doing
everything
we
can
to
support
them
—
including
finding
opportunities
within
EA,
where
we’ve
had
success
helping
people
land
in
new
roles.”

IGN
reached
out
to
EA
for
comment
and
confirmation
of
how
many
jobs
will
be
lost,
but
EA
apparently
declined
to
comment.
They
also
referred
IGN
back
to
the
Emil
Miele
sent,
confirming
the
news.

The
weird
thing
is
that
EA’s
employee
count
has
actually
been
rising
despite
the
many
layoffs
reported.

GameFile
reported
on
the
situation,
revealing
that
as
of
March
this
year
EA
employees
800
people
more
than
it
did
in
March
of
2024.

Miele
goes
on
to
say
that
EA
is
planning
on
focusing
on
just
a
few
of
its
franchises,
which
IGN
lists
as
being
Battlefield,
The
Sims,
Skate
and
Apex
Legends.
EA’s
other
Marvel-related
game,
Iron
Man,
remains
untouched.
The
original
deal
with
Marvel
also
calls
for
a
third,
unannounced
title.
Respawn
will
also
keep
going
on
the
next
Star
Wars:
Jedi
game
(although
its
reported
that
a
Titanfall
game
they
were
working
on
was
canned
recently)
while
Bioware
continues
to
develop
the
next
Mass
Effect.