EA has confirmed its single-player, open-world Black Panther video game has been cancelled with Cliffhanger Studios also closed down.
EA formed Cliffhanger Studios in 2023 with the development team featuring staff who had worked on hit games such as Middle-Earth: Shadow Of Mordor, Halo Infinite and God Of War. The same year, it was confirmed Cliffhanger would be working on a single-player, open-world Black Panther game in collaboration with Marvel Studios. “Their 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,” read a press release at the time.
“We’re dedicated to delivering fans a definitive and authentic Black Panther experience, giving them more agency and control over their narrative than they have ever experienced in a story-driven video game. 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,” added studio head Kevin Stephens.
Marvel Games and EA’s latest studio Cliffhanger Games are proud to announce a new, original, third-person, single-player Black Panther title in development! Read more now: https://t.co/kBS0MTsFbH pic.twitter.com/7aQEdYo7Qg
— Marvel Games (@MarvelGames) July 10, 2023
However, it’s now been announced that Cliffhanger Studios will be shut down and their Black Panther game scrapped. The decision was made to allow EA to “sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities,” said an email from EA Entertainment president Laura Miele (via IGN).
“These decisions are hard,” Miele continued. “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.”
The same email claimed that EA Entertainment will be focusing on a handful of key IPs (Battlefield, The Sims, Skate and Apex Legends) but the Iron Man game at Motive and the third Star Wars: Jedi game are still going ahead.
Earlier this year, Marvel announced that action-adventure game Marvel 1943: Rise Of Hydra would be delayed from 2025 to 2026 to allow the team time to add “more polish” to the World War 2 adventure.
In other news, Nintendo has confirmed that Pokémon Legends: Z-A will launch this October with a special, Switch 2 upgrade available for owners of the new console.