EA cancels Black Panther game, shuts down studio: Iron Man, Mass Effect, and Jedi 3 are safe

Little over two years after announcing the game, billion-dollar games publisher Electronic Arts has cancelled its upcoming Black Panther project and has shut down the studio that was making it, Cliffhanger Games.

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EA has closed another studio as continues spending cuts in a bid to stabilize earnings and avoid unnecessary risks. The announcement was made internally by EA Entertainment exec Laura Miele via email, which was then acquired by IGN.

According to Miele's memo, EA cancelled the game and closed the studio because the publisher is "moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry." EA also recently stepped away from licensing WRC games.

EA will now focus on four core non-sports franchises, at least for the immediate future: Battlefield, The Sims, Skate, and Apex Legends. The company expects that these IPs, in tandem with sports games, will deliver a record-breaking $8 billion in net bookings this fiscal year.

Elsewhere in the memo it was mentioned that BioWare's next Mass Effect game, the new Marvel Iron Man game, and the upcoming Jedi 3 sequel from Respawn are currently safe.

In mid-2023, EA formed Cliffhanger Games specifically to work on the Marvel-licensed Black Panther game, which was said to be a AAA singleplayer title in the action adventure genre, complete with open world mechanics.

Earlier this year, EA laid off hundreds of workers, including those at the WRC studio Codemasters, and cancelled a new Titanfall game that was in development at Respawn.

Meanwhile, EA continues investing in generative artificial intelligence technology that automates specific aspects of game creation, namely giving players the ability to create their own unique sandboxes on-the-fly complete with in-house assets lifted directly from big-budget EA intellectual properties like Battlefield

EA says that it currently has over 100 AI projects in development.