Digital Arts has undergone one other spherical of layoffs, shuttering one in every of its studios and canceling one other extremely anticipated venture. IGN reports that EA’s upcoming Black Panther recreation has been scrapped as Cliffhanger Games, the studio growing it, has been shuttered.
The untitled Black Panther recreation was first introduced again in 2023. Not a lot has been shared in regards to the recreation within the years since, although it was billed as an open-world, third-person, single-player action-adventure set in Wakanda.
The sport was being developed at Cliffhanger Games, a newly fashioned triple-A growth studio based mostly in Seattle, made up of trade veterans who had labored on among the world’s largest recreation franchises. Former Monolith Productions studio head Kevin Stevens, who oversaw the event of the Center-earth video games, was directing the Black Panther recreation alongside veterans with expertise on franchises like Halo, God of Battle, and Name of Responsibility.
Regardless of figuring out little in regards to the recreation, there was a ton of anticipation surrounding it merely for the truth that it featured one in every of Marvel’s hottest superheroes.
Whereas EA has not issued a direct assertion to the media, an inside e mail despatched to employees had defined that the current cancellations and layoffs are being completed to “sharpen our focus and put our inventive vitality behind probably the most important development alternatives.”
EA has undergone a number of rounds of layoffs over the previous couple of months, impacting all areas of the corporate and affecting lots of of former workers.
“These selections are exhausting,” Miele wrote. “They have an effect on folks we’ve labored with, discovered from, and shared actual moments with. We’re doing every part we are able to to assist them — together with discovering alternatives inside EA, the place we’ve had success serving to folks land in new roles.”
Simply final month, EA had laid off roughly 300 to 400 workers, together with round 100 at Respawn Leisure, the studio greatest recognized for Titanfall and Apex Legends. This additionally resulted within the cancellation of a brand new Titanfall recreation, which was in early growth.
These layoffs are a part of a company-wide restructuring that was first introduced final yr. On the time, EA CEO Andrew Wilson had acknowledged that roughly 5 % of the corporate’s workforce could be impacted.
“We’re additionally sunsetting video games and transferring away from growth of future licensed IP that we don’t imagine can be profitable in our altering trade,” Wilson mentioned final yr. “This larger focus permits us to drive creativity, speed up innovation, and double down on our largest alternatives — together with our owned IP, sports activities, and large on-line communities — to ship the leisure gamers need right now and tomorrow.”
The cancellation of this Black Panther recreation, together with different unannounced tasks, will now permit EA to give attention to its core franchises, together with Battlefield, The Sims, Skate, and Apex Legends. Different ongoing tasks like EA Motive’s Iron Man and the subsequent entries within the Star Wars: Jedi and Mass Impact collection do not look like impacted.
EA wasn’t the one writer with a Black Panther-focused recreation within the works. Skydance New Media is working in collaboration with Marvel Games Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, a narrative-driven action-adventure recreation that includes Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Azzuri (Black Panther) as they staff as much as stop the rise of Hydra in German-occupied France throughout World Battle II.