EA Scrapped 'Black Panther' Game Reportedly Due To High Costs And Lack Of Development Progress
A new report alleges that EA shut down Cliffhanger Games and its Black Panther game due to high costs and lack of development progress.
At the end of May EA Entertainment President Laura Miele shared that EA shut down the studio and its Black Panther game to “sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.”
As for what those growth opportunities are at EA Entertainment, Miele implied it would be Battlefield, Skate, The Sims, and Apex Legends as well as its Iron Man game at Motive, a third Star Wars Jedi game at Respawn, and BioWare’s upcoming Mass Effect game.
Now, a new report from Jason Schreier at Bloomberg claims the game was scrapped due to EA executives being “frustrated that the game had not yet left the pre-production phase after nearly four years in development.”
Furthermore, Schreier noted that due to Cliffhanger being based in Kirkland, Washington it was paying “top salaries” due to the cost of living.
Ultimately, he stated, “the game just wasn’t far enough along for EA, despite recent momentum.”
As for that recent momentum, Schreier claimed that the game had recently passed what EA calls a “gate” or an executive review that would determine whether or not the game would continue development.
Regarding what the actual game was going to be about, the report detailed that it would see players taking on the role of T’Challa, Killmonger, and Shuri as they battle to become the Black Panther. The player was able to choose one of these characters while the others would become rivals.
The main antagonists would be the shape-shifting Skrulls, who were attempting to invade the fictional African country of Wakanda.
The game was also using a system similar to the Nemesis System seen in Shadow of Mordor, which allowed NPC characters to develop their own personality and actions based on the player’s choices and actions.
A previous report from TheGhostofHope in February claimed that players would be able to choose the next Black Panther. It also noted that the game included T’Challa, M’Baku, Azari, Shuri, Killmonger and others.
Furthermore, it noted that the story would respond to player choices and actions.
While Schreier claims these are the reasons, Cliffhanger Games was also plagued with multiple woke DEI controversies. The company hired admitted racist and former Sweet Baby Inc. employee Dani Lalonders as an Associate Narrative Designer.
During a presentation at the Game Devs of Color Expo 2021, Lalonders admitted to discriminating against whie people on her indie game ValiDate. She said, “aliDate has a team of all people of color. We have no white people on our team. I did that because I wanted to create a safe environment. And I know the best way for the environment to be safe is to be around people who are just like me.”
“And I’m not saying that white people in the industry are creating unsafe environments. I’m not saying that. That is not what I’m saying,” she said. “I’m saying sometimes it is hard to work with white people because they think that something may be okay, but it was really a microaggression, and no one wants to deal with that while you’re trying to make a game that they love.”
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Not only did Lalonders admit to discrimination, but she also said she was a racist while attempting to defend her former employer Sweet Baby Inc.
On March 7th, she wrote, “i just stopped taking yall seriously when yall start running around saying white people can experience racism because i did not suffer through 2020 for yall to act like you werent an ally to blm 4 years later.”
“posting that tired a** screenshot of the google definition of racism. i just dont care anymore,” Lalonders concluded.
She then admitted to being a racist in a response to Rileyman1080, who wrote, “Hahaha so being appropriately called racist is tiresome, huh? You could try not being racist.”
Lalonders responded, “Yeah im racist so what now?”
Lalonders later stated that if you believe you can be racist towards white people that makes you racist.
She wrote, “if you think you can be racist to white people, you literally are.”
In October 2024, Alexa Ray Corriea, a Senior Writer for the Black Panther game also shared her desire to have a t-shirt that states most gamers are bigots.
Former Kotaku Senior Editor Alyssa Mercante posted to X, “I don’t support all gamers most of you are bigots.”
Corriea responded, “need this on a shirt.”
What do you make of these reasons for Cliffhanger Games getting shut down and the Black Panther game getting scrapped?
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So DEI hires don't do any actual work - imagine that.
very surprising 😅