EA is cancelling its Black Panther game and shutting down developer Cliffhanger Games, it’s been reported by IGN.
The source of the news is an email sent to staff by EA Entertainment president Laura Miele, the layoffs joining the waves of broader job cuts being made at the company and across the industry. Thankfully, it appears that the layoffs from closing Cliffhanger Games, alongside cuts in its mobile and central teams, are smaller than the 300 jobs lost last month and previous cuts, though the numbers are not clear with EA refusing to comment to IGN. Additionally, EA is trying to move individual employees to other roles within the company, filling gaps and roles from within.
In the email, Miele said this is happening to “sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.”
She continued, “These decisions are hard. 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.”
Black Panther was part of a three game deal that EA cut with Disney in 2023, founding Cliffhanger as a brand new studio for the project, being lead by Kevin Stephens, formerly of Monolith, and with talent who have experience on big franchises such as Halo Infinite, God of War, Call of Duty and others.
The studio and the project ran for around two years – it was announced in July 2023 – which would be a typical timeframe for shifting from pre-production to full development, requiring a more significant financial commitment from EA and hiring or contractors being brought in to support this.
While CEO Andrew Wilson indicated that EA wanted to move away from licensed IP, EA is still committed to working on other Disney franchises, including an Iron Man game in development at Motive, and a third Star Wars: Jedi title from Respawn. There is also a third unannounced title in the deal signed with Marvel.
Source: IGN
