EA Reportedly Cancels Black Panther Game, Shuts Down Developer Cliffhanger Games

Electronic Arts has reportedly cancelled its Black Panther game based on the popular Marvel Comics superhero and shut down developer Cliffhanger Games. The cancellation marks the third round of cuts at EA this year and will result in an unspecified number of layoffs at the company. In April, EA laid off hundreds of employees at Star Wars Jedi developer Respawn Entertainment, along with some of its other studios, and cancelled a Titanfall game.

EA Cancels Black Panther Game

In an email to staff seen by IGN, EA Entertainment president Laura Miele said shutting down the studio and cancelling the project, along with other recent cuts, would enable the company to “sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.”

EA declined to specify the number of employees affected by the latest round of retrenchment, but the company is reportedly also laying off an unspecified number of employees in its mobile and central teams, in addition to staff at Cliffhanger Games. The number of laid off workers, however, is reportedly less than the last round of cuts at EA in April, when between 300 and 400 positions were eliminated, including around 100 staff members at Respawn.

The company is reportedly working to place some of the affected staff in available roles across its other studios, just like when it moved dozens of BioWare staff to other teams permanently when the studio was downsized following the launch of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

“These decisions are hard," Miele reportedly said in her email to staff. “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.”

EA will now focus on its core franchises, including Battlefield, The Sims, Skate and Apex Legends. The company will reportedly continue to developer the Iron Man game in the works at Motive and the third Star Wars Jedi game at Respawn. Bioware, meanwhile, will continue to work on the next Mass Effect.

Cliffhanger Games Shut Down

The Black Panther game was announced as a third-person single-player action-adventure title in 2023 along with newly formed Cliffhanger Games. Described as a “triple-A development studio”, Cliffhanger was based in Seattle and was working on the project in collaboration with Marvel Games.

“Our mission is to build an expansive and reactive world that empowers players to experience what it is like to take on the mantle of Wakanda's protector, the Black Panther,” the studio had said in the announcement.

Cliffhanger was led by Kevin Stephens, formerly of Middle-Earth: Shadow of War developer Monolith Productions, which was also shut down by Warner Bros. in February.

“Wakanda is a rich Super Hero sandbox, and our mission is to develop an epic world for players who love Black Panther and want to explore the world of Wakanda as much as we do,” Stephens had said when the game was revealed.

Last month, EA laid off hundreds of employees and cancelled a Titanfall game in development at a Respawn subsidiary. The canceled title, code-named R7, was reportedly an extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe.

BioWare was reportedly also hit with layoffs earlier this year after the underwhelming launch of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The reorganization reportedly saw dozens of employees move permanently to other roles across EA and “around two dozen” others laid off.