EA Cancels Black Panther Game and Closes Studio
Another video game was just canceled, the studio developing it was closed down, and the reason behind it is likely the same one that’s led to the cancellation of other games and studios. This time, the game is Black Panther, the adaptation of the Marvel character who shot up in popularity following his appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, most notably his debut in Captain America: Civil War and his eponymous solo film. Announced in 2023, Black Panther was being developed by Cliffhanger Games, an in-house studio owned by Electronic Arts; EA has a three-game development deal with Marvel that included Black Panther and Iron Man, the latter of which is being developed by another of EA’s in-house developers, Motive Studio. The third game has not been announced yet, but another slot just opened up because, in an internal memo obtained by IGN, EA has canceled Black Panther and is shuttering Cliffhanger Games. In addition to the usual platitudes about what a hard decision it was and the promise to try to bring the affected employees into new roles at EA, the reason given for the decision is so that EA can “sharpen [their] focus and put [their] creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.” In other words, they didn’t think Black Panther was going to be a winner.
The email has similar language to the announcement that EA fired a bunch of BioWare employees and decided to focus on making their new Mass Effect game the best it could be following the failure of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. But why did they lose faith in Black Panther and Cliffhanger? It’s a game based on a popular character, and the Cliffhanger team included industry veterans who worked on big franchises like God of War, Halo, and Call of Duty. Well, the Dragon Age and BioWare situation is the big clue; recall that Dragon Age: The Veilguard was a woke mess that stopped the game short to lecture gamers about “non-binary” ram monsters and the proper way to flagellate oneself after misgendering someone. There were indications that Black Panther may have been on a similar trajectory, one that, while no one will admit it on the record, is a death knell for video games, particularly now that gamers are on the lookout for woke intrusions on their pastime. One such indication is the involvement of Sweet Baby Inc. and other like-minded consulting firms that push for DEI and left-wing political messaging in video games. And Black Panther had one in the form of Dani Lalonders, a former contributor to Sweet Baby Inc. who served as an associate narrative designer, according to That Park Place. If you don’t remember her, she’s this loon:
This is Dani Lalonders, a nonbinary game developer. She was hired by @CliffhangerDevs to create a game based on @Marvel‘s #BlackPanther.
She says she doesn’t hire white people because they’re unsafe and it’s hard to work with them and only hires people of color.
Is this… pic.twitter.com/zVodAvagLN
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 12, 2024
Unsurprisingly, gamers were worried about Black Panther with Lalonders working on it. That Park Place points out that Lalonders said she was a “junior-level” employee who had no hiring power at Cliffhanger, but we all know how viruses work, and once the organism is infected, the sickness spreads. Gamers had been burned too many times to ignore someone like this working on a new game. And it wasn’t just Lalonders; Black Panther’s senior writer, Alexa Ray Corriea, responded to an X post from obnoxious Kotaku editor Alyssa Mercante indicating that she hates most gamers (image courtesy of That Park Place):
From this, I think we can extrapolate how Corriea feels about Sweet Baby Inc. and woke video games – and especially about the people who don’t like them. Beyond that, you simply can’t have an employee talking about your customers like that. These people seem determined to make sure nobody buys their games, and after a few high-profile failures, the guys footing the bill start to take notice. Now, Black Panther isn’t happening, and a bunch of likely good people at Cliffhanger just lost their jobs. When they gleefully mouth off about how much they hate normal people, the wokesters never consider all those they could be hurting… or, worse, they do, and they just don’t care. As for EA’s Marvel deal, IGN reports that it remains in effect, and Iron Man is still in development, with two other games to follow. Perhaps EA will take a lesson from the wild success of Marvel Rivals and allow them to be fun.
Let us know what you think of the Black Panther game being canceled in the comments!
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