According to a new report, publisher Electronic Arts (EA) has cancelled its Black Panther game and has also shut down its fledgling developer Cliffhanger Games in the process.
The news comes from IGN, which reports that it learned of an email sent to EA staff by EA Entertainment president Laura Miele in which she informed employees of the decision and also revealed that the company is laying off several members of its teams. Notably, the cancellation and this round of layoffs come a month after EA cancelled a Titanfall project and laid off roughly 300-400 developers across Respawn Entertainment and other studios.
It's unclear how many EA staff members are being hit by these cuts, though it's reportedly a smaller number than the aforementioned layoffs in April.
In the email, Miele explained that these decisions have been made to "sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities," while also stating EA's commitment to help affected employees find new positions within the company and its development teams.
"These decisions are hard," reads the memo. "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."
This reassignment process has accompanied many of EA's layoff waves in the last several years, resulting in a higher headcount than one might expect after cuts like these. Game File reports that as of March 2025, EA had 800 more staff members than it did at the same time last year.
Miele went on to state that EA will narrow most of its focus to four franchises: Battlefield, The Sims, Skate, and Apex Legends. However, she reassured team members that it will continue to support the development of its Iron Man game in development at Motive Studio, along with Respawn Entertainment's next Star Wars: Jedi title and BioWare's next Mass Effect game.
The Black Panther game was announced in 2023, and was reportedly going to be a single-player action game set in an open world. Its studio Cliffhanger Games was founded in 2021, and Black Panther was set to be its debut title.
Alongside Motive's Iron Man and a third unknown game, the Black Panther action title was part of a three-game deal between Marvel and EA. Notably, EA announced in 2024 that it's "moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry." This is likely why there's been no word of a future Star Wars Battlefront game as well, despite fans clamoring for it during a massive Star Wars Battlefront 2 resurgence.
What is there to even say, at this point?
We've been reporting on widespread layoffs in the video game industry for several years, and at this point, the thousands upon thousands of cuts across numerous publishing and development studios has been depressingly well-documented.
It's disturbing that we've gotten to the point where this feels like it's almost a desensitized issue; every month brings new layoff news with a frustrating degree of certainty, and the bleeding never seems to stop. As always, my heart goes out to all employees affected, as well as everyone at Cliffhanger Games that was working on Black Panther.
If there's a silver lining here, it's that there have been fewer layoffs in 2025 so far than there were at the same time in previous years, and also that EA's placement program seems to have helped many of its employees settle in new positions. But even so, I really, really wish this was an article my colleagues and I didn't have to keep writing.
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