EA has cancelled its Black Panther game and closed its studio Cliffhanger Games
The publisher is also set to lay off more employees
Electronic Arts has cancelled its Black Panther game and closed down the studio that was working on it.
According to a report from IGN, the publisher has shut down Cliffhanger Games, and is attempting to place affected staff in other roles across the company.
The report says EA will also be laying off other staff on its mobile and central teams, in a round of layoffs separate to those last month which saw 300-400 staff laid off across EA, including 100 at Apex Legends studio Respawn Entertainment.
The publication was forwarded an email sent to staff from EA Entertainment president Laura Miele, which says the cancellation of the Black Panther game is part of EA’s effort to “sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities”.
Miele’s email also says EA Entertainment – which is a separate division to EA Sports – will focus mainly on Battlefield, The Sims, Skate and Apex Legends going forward, though development will also continue on Motive‘s Iron Man game and Respawn’s third Star Wars: Jedi game.
Cliffhanger Games was formed in 2021 and was led by Kevin Stephens, who was boss of Warner’s Monolith during development of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War.
In addition to leaders from those games, Cliffhanger’s team included veterans of franchises including Halo, God of War and Call of Duty, according to EA.
The Black Panther game was being developed in collaboration with Marvel Games.
“We want our game to enable players to feel what it’s like to be worthy of the Black Panther mantle in unique, story-driven ways, and we want Cliffhanger Games to empower everyone on our team as we collaborate to bring this amazing world to life,” Stephens said last year.
“We’re still early in development with a long road ahead, but we know the foundation to any great story is to build an experienced team with diverse voices and perspectives and that’s what we want to build, especially with a superhero as important as Black Panther.”
