Black Panther Game Canceled by EA

Developer Cliffhanger Games has also been closed down.

The turmoil at Electronic Arts continues, as the company has both canceled a major upcoming project as well as shuttered the studio that was making it. Black Panther was the game, which was originally announced back 2023, and the studio making it was Cliffhanger Games. The layoffs were discovered via an email obtained by IGN. You might recall that earlier this month, EA already let go of 300 workers. This, in combination with the failure of Dragon Age: The Veilguard leading to layoffs/restructuring at BioWare Edmonton, means EA has now gone through three rounds of significant layoffs in 2025 alone. In March of 2024, EA also let go of 670 staffers. It's clear that something is amiss at the company if this many workers are being let go of at such a clip.

Cliffhanger Games, meanwhile, was founded in 2023 specifically to work on Black Panther. However, there were some red flags that popped up early on when it was discovered that at least one of the team members was Sweet Baby Inc (a consulting agency that has drawn criticism for allegedly compelling politicized narratives in the games it works on) expat Dani Lalonders. Lalonders drew ire for racist comments about white people, as well as professing to refusing to hire white people. Knowing that such open animosity existed on the team gave pause to many consumers who worried Black Panther's narrative would be overwhelmed with politicking and anti-white racism.

EA Entertainment president Laura Miele said in the email sent to staff that part of the reasoning behind the decision to end development of Black Panther and shutter Cliffhanger was to "sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities." IGN reports that beyond this, there were other layoffs in different departments across EA, including its mobile division. EA did not provide exact layoff numbers when asked by IGN.

It's also worth noting that the Marvel brand doesn't quite carry the interest among consumers that it once did. From toys hitting discount shops like Ollie's in great numbers (and sitting idle there for months on end) to failed movie after failed movie, Disney's handling of Marvel has resulted in diminishing returns for licensing partners. It's a trend that has extended to other Disney brands like Star Wars—Star Wars Outlaws, which was developed by Ubisoft and released in August of last year, was such an under-performer that it contributed to Ubisoft's share value tanking to a 10-year low soon thereafter. Based on Miele's letter it seems EA didn't consider a Black Panther project to be something that would offer "significant growth opportunitiy."

We'll continue to report on this situation as we learn more.

Source: IGN