EA Developers Wave Goodbye to 'Ambitious and Special' Black Panther Game: 'It Breaks My Heart the World Won't See It'
EA developers have taken to social media to react to the news that its Black Panther game is canceled and developer Cliffhanger is shutting down.
EA developers have taken to social media to react to the news that its Black Panther game is canceled and its developer Cliffhanger is shutting down.
Little was shown of Black Panther after its announcement in 2023, though we knew it was to be a single-player, action-adventure, open-world game. Black Panther was being developed by the now-closed Cliffhanger Games, which was formed in 2023 with some former developers of the much-loved Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and headed up by Kevin Stephens.
In an email sent to staff from EA Entertainment president Laura Miele, reviewed by IGN, 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."
"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."
Following the news, EA staff and others who worked on the game took to social media to wave goodbye to Black Panther, and call on other companies to snap up developers affected by the studio closure.
“I was a part of this incredible crew,” said concept artist Karla Ortiz. “We were working on such an amazing and stunning game. Detailed, rich, beautiful. It breaks my heart the world won't see it.
“It also breaks my heart to say goodbye to the team. What an honor to work with you all. What a sad day.”
Ortiz continued: "... every dev there wanted so badly to release the game. It was beautiful and such great care was given.” “We were so excited to show the world! It was truly special.” Then: “All I can say is that we had something phenomenal.”
Senior Environment Architect II, Freddie Lee, said: “Welp this happened today. It has to be said that during my short time there, I've had the honor and pleasure to work with people like Karla who's art inspired myself and the team, and also instilling confidence and growth into my professional artwork. This team was, and is GOAT.”
He added: "took us by complete surprise."
Game designer Sophie Mallinson said: “this is a ✧˖° dream team °˖✧ and you should snap up anyone who was working on this project. So sad that we might not ever get to see a black panther ARPG developed by the creators of the Nemesis System!!”
Ex-Respawn developer Rayme Vinson, now principal technical designer at Gravity Well, also touched on the game Black Panther might have been, saying: “When they shut down the Star Wars FPS, we got to see this game up close and talk to their dev team, because they could take on some of our folks. What they were building was ambitious and special and I was legitimately excited to play it someday, even if they'd only done 1/4 of what they planned.”
Patrick Wren, senior encounter design on Jedi Survivor at Respawn, simply said: “Morale has been at an all-time low. I can say that much.”
These cuts come hot 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.
EA is now focusing on a small handful of franchises: Battlefield, The Sims, Skate, and Apex Legends. It insisted it will continue with its Iron Man game at Motive and the third Star Wars: Jedi game, as well as maintain its mobile business, while Bioware works on the next Mass Effect. EA Sports, which operates the likes of FC and Madden, is a separate division to EA Entertainment.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
