Summary
Followingthe abrupt cancellation of its open-world Black Panther game, along with the shutdown of its developer, Cliffhanger Studios, more details have emerged surroundingElectronic Arts' decision to pull the plug.
Specifically,even with a story seemingly set in place, as well as concept art that was shown to survey takers, EA executivesreportedly grew “frustrated” at the game’s lack of progress, according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier.
As part of Schreier’s reporting, it was revealed that the news of the game’s cancellation was a “shock” to those at Cliffhanger Studios, particularly as the studio was apparently actively hiring and had passed an internal milestone to continue production.
However, the executives at the publisher grew “frustrated” that the game hadn’t left its pre-production phase, though it’s noted that it was only recently that the studio even began scaling up.
Had the game come out, it would have featured something similar to the Nemesis System, with expanded ideas in play. Not only that, but it would have allowed players to control either T’Challa, Shuri or Killmonger, all of whom were competing for the Black Panther mantle. The characters not selected would become the player’s in-game rivals.
Story-wise, things would have focused on the Skrulls and their quest to invade Wakanda. The studio envisioned taking advantage of the Skrull’s shape-shifting abilities to have some pose as allies in disguise to the player. Unfortunately, the game’s ambitious ideas were “hard to showcase.”
In the end, EA made the executive decision to pull the plug entirely, putting to bed what could have been an interesting game. For what it’s worth,EA’s Iron Man game is seemingly still a go.
