Announced today, EA has closed down Cliffhanger Games and cancelled the team’s much-anticipated Black Panther game. The title, which was announced to be in development back in July of 2023, was part of a three-game partnership between EA and Marvel.

This partnership would start with Iron Man, being developed by Motive Studios, and Black Panther was set to be the second title in that deal. While no details were given about the third title, it seems now that we don’t know what will take the place of this now vacant second spot.

Cliffhanger Games, oddly enough, was formed to develop this Black Panther game exclusively, and its closure is yet another in a long list over the past few years. Cliffhanger Games’s leadership began with Kevin Stephens, who previously worked at Monolith Productions, with additional team members also those who worked on Shadow of Mordor. Given that Monolith Productions also saw its share of troubled superhero games, they were shut down amid the development of Wonder Woman.

IGN reported that Cliffhanger staff were made aware of the studio closure via an email from EA Entertainment President, Laure Miele. The closure followed the typical PR spin with “sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities”, which doesn’t provide an answer as to what went wrong and why the studio was closed down. This form of messaging is pointless and fails to provide any meaning to this act.

Miele would state that Iron Man, Mass Effect, as well as the next Star Wars Jedi title, would continue production. It was also stated that EA Sports would be unaffected by this closure. That said, EA’s Mobile and central teams were also affected. Thankfully, many of these employees will be moved to other studios instead of being released. Why actual numbers were not given, it is estimated, by IGN, that it is less than 300 people.

Black Panther would have been the first time in the character’s history to have been the lead in a game.