EA has shuttered Cliffhanger Games and canceled the team’s upcoming Black Panther game. This marks the third round of layoffs at the publisher this year.
Black Panther was first announced to be in development in July 2023 as part of a three-game partnership between EA and Marvel. The first game revealed for that initiative is an upcoming Iron Man title developed by Motive Studios, the team behind the 2023 Dead Space remake and Star Wars Squadrons. Black Panther was the second title; the third game has yet to be announced.
EA formed the Seattle-based Cliffhanger Games to develop Black Panther. At the time of its reveal, Black Panther was very early in development; Cliffhanger was still hiring staff. Because of this, we know very little about what the game would have been beyond what Cliffhanger described at the time as a “single-player story-driven third-person action-adventure game.” It also would have been the character’s first solo starring role in a video game, having previously appeared in supporting roles.
In an unfortunate twist of fate, Cliffhanger was led by Kevin Stephens, formerly of Monolith Productions. Cliffhanger’s staff also partly consisted of former Monolith talent who worked on Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Monolith Productions was shut down by Warner Bros. in February and had its own superhero game, Wonder Woman, canceled.
IGN reports that Cliffhanger’s staff were informed of the shutdown via an email from EA Entertainment president Laura Miele. She explained that the closure was part of EA’s larger goal to “sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities” as the publisher aims to focus on developing a small batch of franchises: Battlefield, Apex Legends, The Sims, and Skate. Despite this initiative, Miele’s email also states that Motive’s Iron Man, Respawn’s third Star Wars Jedi game, and BioWare’s next Mass Effect title will remain in production. EA Sports, which is a separate division from EA Entertainment, is also said to be unaffected by today’s events.
Employees working in EA’s mobile and central teams were also impacted. Miele states EA will work to find new positions for affected employees in other parts of the company. It is unclear exactly how many employees have lost their jobs, though IGN believes the number is less than 300.
This news follows the round of layoffs that hit the publisher last April, which included 100 employees at Respawn Entertainment. This resulted in the cancellation of incubation projects that included a Titanfall title. BioWare also saw layoffs in January due to a restructuring aimed at focusing all resources on developing the next Mass Effect. In February 2024, EA laid off over 650 employees and canceled an upcoming Star Wars first-person shooter by Respawn. That particular round of layoffs saw CEO Andrew Wilson state that the publisher was “moving away from the development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry.”
Black Panther fans now only have Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra to look forward to. Developed by Skydance New Media and led by former Uncharted creative lead Amy Hennig, it stars Captain America and Black Panther Azzuri, the grandfather of T’Challa, alongside a soldier and a Wakandan spy, battling Hydra during World War II. That title was recently delayed to 2026.
