EA Developers Wave Goodbye to 'Ambitious and Special' Black Panther Game: 'It Breaks My Heart the World Won't See It'

EA developers person taken to societal media to respond to the quality that its Black Panther crippled is canceled and its developer Cliffhanger is shutting down.

Little was shown of Black Panther aft its announcement successful 2023, though we knew it was to beryllium a single-player, action-adventure, open-world game. Black Panther was being developed by the now-closed Cliffhanger Games, which was formed successful 2023 with immoderate erstwhile developers of the much-loved Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and headed up by Kevin Stephens.

In an email sent to unit from EA Entertainment president Laura Miele, reviewed by IGN, Miele said that these changes, alongside different caller cancellations and layoffs, are being done to "sharpen our absorption and enactment our originative vigor down the astir important maturation opportunities."

The Black Panther crippled logo. Image credit: EA.

"These decisions are hard," Miele wrote. "They impact radical we’ve worked with, learned from, and shared existent moments with. We’re doing everything we tin to enactment them — including uncovering opportunities wrong EA, wherever we’ve had occurrence helping radical onshore successful caller roles."

Following the news, EA unit and others who worked connected the crippled took to societal media to question goodbye to Black Panther, and telephone connected different companies to drawback up developers affected by the workplace closure.

“I was a portion of this unthinkable crew,” said conception creator Karla Ortiz. “We were moving connected specified an astonishing and stunning game. Detailed, rich, beautiful. It breaks my bosom the satellite won't spot it.

“It besides breaks my bosom to accidental goodbye to the team. What an grant to enactment with you all. What a bittersweet day.”

Ortiz continued: "... each dev determination wanted truthful severely to merchandise the game. It was beauteous and specified large attraction was given.” “We were truthful excited to amusement the world! It was genuinely special.” Then: “All I tin accidental is that we had thing phenomenal.”

Senior Environment Architect II, Freddie Lee, said: “Welp this happened today. It has to beryllium said that during my abbreviated clip there, I've had the grant and pleasance to enactment with radical similar Karla who's creation inspired myself and the team, and besides instilling assurance and maturation into my nonrecreational artwork. This squad was, and is GOAT.”

He added: "took america by implicit surprise."

Game decorator Sophie Mallinson said: “this is simply a ✧˖° imagination squad °˖✧ and you should drawback up anyone who was moving connected this project. So bittersweet that we mightiness not ever get to spot a achromatic panther ARPG developed by the creators of the Nemesis System!!”

Ex-Respawn developer Rayme Vinson, present main method decorator astatine Gravity Well, besides touched connected the crippled Black Panther mightiness person been, saying: “When they unopen down the Star Wars FPS, we got to spot this crippled up adjacent and speech to their dev team, due to the fact that they could instrumentality connected immoderate of our folks. What they were gathering was ambitious and peculiar and I was legitimately excited to play it someday, adjacent if they'd lone done 1/4 of what they planned.”

Patrick Wren, elder brushwood plan connected Jedi Survivor astatine Respawn, simply said: “Morale has been astatine an all-time low. I tin accidental that much.”

These cuts travel blistery connected the heels of aggregate different rounds of layoffs and cancelations astatine EA implicit the past fewer years and particularly successful 2025. Just past month, EA laid disconnected astir 300 individuals, including astir 100 astatine Respawn, portion canceling an in-development Titanfall crippled and different incubation project. Earlier this year, EA restructured BioWare, moving immoderate developers to different projects and laying disconnected others. In 2024, determination was a monolithic restructuring astatine EA that resulted successful 670 workers laid disconnected company-wide, including astir 2 twelve workers astatine Respawn. And successful 2023, 50 jobs were chopped astatine BioWare and an chartless fig were chopped astatine Codemasters.

EA is present focusing connected a tiny fistful of franchises: Battlefield, The Sims, Skate, and Apex Legends. It insisted it volition proceed with its Iron Man crippled astatine Motive and the 3rd Star Wars: Jedi game, arsenic good arsenic support its mobile business, portion Bioware works connected the adjacent Mass Effect. EA Sports, which operates the likes of FC and Madden, is simply a abstracted part to EA Entertainment.

Wesley is Director, News astatine IGN. Find him connected Twitter astatine @wyp100. You tin scope Wesley astatine [email protected] oregon confidentially astatine [email protected].