EA cancels Black Panther and closes game studio Cliffhanger Games

Electronic Arts confirmed that it has canceled its planned Black Panther game and closed the game studio making it, Cliffhanger Games.

Cliffhanger Games opened in 2023 to make the Black Panther game as part of EA’s deal with Marvel for multiple games. EA is still working on an Iron Man title. A spokesperson said an IGN report on the closing is accurate but had no further comment.

IGN reported that EA executive Laura Miele said it is shutting the game and studio to “sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.”

EA also said it is laying off staff on its mobile and central teams, but it didn’t say how many were affected. In April, EA laid off a few hundred people with the cancellation of a Titanfall game.

“These decisions are hard,” Miele said in a memo 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 has been in an uncertain time, with new triple-A games failing to get traction and the result being a new conservatism among game executives, who are not greenlighting as many new intellectual properties. In this case, Black Panther was a well-known franchise with a spectacular movie background, but

Cliffhanger was led by Kevin Stephens, who oversaw the production of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Monolith Productions. He joined EA in 2021.

Miele said that EA would focus on Battlefield, The Sims, Skate, and Apex Legends, Iron Man and the next Star Wars: Jedi title. EA is working on various mobile games, BioWare’s Mass Effect, and a number of EA Sports titles.