The Daily Populous Saturday May 31st, 2025 morning edition
Authored by ign.com and submitted by IcePopsicleDragon

Electronic Arts is canceling its planned Black Panther game and shutting down developer Cliffhanger Games, IGN has learned.

In an email sent to staff from EA Entertainment president Laura Miele, Miele said that these changes, alongside other recent cancellations and layoffs, are being done to "sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities."

In addition to closing Cliffhanger and canceling Black Panther, EA is also laying off some individuals on both its mobile and central teams. When asked for an exact number of individuals impacted, EA declined to comment. IGN understands the total number of affected individuals in this wave is less than the roughly 300 roles cut last month across Respawn and EA's Fan Care teams - but cannot confirm by how much.

"These decisions are hard," Miele wrote. "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."

As with past rounds of layoffs, EA is endeavoring to place affected individuals in other roles across the company. The company has made use of this placement program with each round of layoffs in recent years, an effort that remains possible despite the constant team cuts likely due to EA seemingly drastically increasing headcount on other teams at the same time. Per Game File's reporting, EA employed 800 more people as of March of this year than it did the same time in 2024.

To that end, Miele's email continues, the company is focusing on a small handful of franchises going forward: Battlefield, The Sims, Skate, and Apex Legends. Miele also reassures EA will continue to invest in its Iron Man game at Motive and the third Star Wars: Jedi game, as well as it maintain its mobile business despite today's cuts.

The email doesn't mention EA Sports, but this is due to Miele running EA Entertainment, while EA Sports is a separate division. IGN understands that the sports division is unaffected by these changes for now. Additionally, IGN understands that the current intention is for Bioware to continue working on Mass Effect.

Last year, CEO Andrew Wilson announced the company would be "moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry." But notably, Marvel and EA's agreement for Black Panther was part of a three-game deal that included Iron Man and a third, unannounced title. IGN understands this partnership will continue, with Motive Studios leading future Marvel titles. EA provided the following statement regarding the deal with Marvel to IGN, attributed to Miele: "Our partnership with Marvel remains strong and our multi-title, long-term collaboration continues."

A Marvel spokesperson shared a similar statement with IGN post-publication:

"The multi-title, long-term relationship between Marvel Games and EA, a creative collaboration focused on original storytelling with various, beloved Marvel characters, remains strong. Development of our console and PC titles, beginning with Marvel's Iron Man, is led by Motive Studios."

Little has been shown of Black Panther so far since its announcement in 2023, though we know from a job listing it was to be a single-player, action-adventure, open-world game. Black Panther was being developed by the newly-formed, now-closed Cliffhanger Games, which was formed in 2023 with some former developers of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and headed up by Kevin Stephens.

These cuts come on the heels of multiple other rounds of layoffs and cancelations at EA over the last few years and especially in 2025. Just last month, EA laid off roughly 300 individuals, including around 100 at Respawn, while canceling an in-development Titanfall game and another incubation project. Earlier this year, EA restructured BioWare, moving some developers to other projects and laying off others. In 2024, there was a massive restructuring at EA that resulted in 670 workers laid off company-wide, including around two dozen workers at Respawn. And in 2023, 50 jobs were cut at BioWare and an unknown number were cut at Codemasters.

Meanwhile, EA recently implemented mandatory return-to-office for all workers, a move that some employees told IGN has left many currently remote workers with concerns about what will happen to their roles long-term.

When asked for comment on the exact number impacted, the reasons for these repeated cuts, or if more cuts are expected in the near future, EA referred IGN back to Miele's email. Marvel has not yet responded to IGN's request for comment.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

This piece was updated post-publication to add updated statements from both EA and Marvel, as well as correctly source a reference to Bioware.

DamonOfTheSpire on May 28th, 2025 at 22:13 UTC »

Wakanda for a little while

JonnyRocks on May 28th, 2025 at 20:00 UTC »

I canceled a cool game that everyone wanted today too. I know I never talked about it but it was really cool. sorry you wont get to see it.

DestructorDeFurros on May 28th, 2025 at 19:37 UTC »

They were making a Black Panther game?