Bloomberg has unearthed some details about the Black Panther game that is now never going to happen. It would have featured a Skrull invasion of Wakanda, with T'Challa, Shuri and Killmonger all vying for the title of Black Panther.
Cliffhanger Games, a studio filled with veterans of now-defunct Monolith Productions, was creating the next edition of the Nemesis System made famous by the Shadow of Mordor games. In those titles, the enemies you fought would hold grudges and learn better ways to defeat you on their way up the orc hierarchy.
With both Cliffhanger and Monolith no more, we won't see anything using the Nemesis System for a long time, and that's a tragedy. This is a stunning reversal from fall 2024, when the publisher declared Black Panther would deliver new technology that would transfer across EA's games.
Want to be even more depressed by this news? Going forward, EA is going to focus on Apex Legends, Skate, Battlefield, and The Sims. It is still reportedly committed to delivering an Iron Man game. There will also be another sequel in the Jedi series featuring original character Cal Kestis.
I love all the Marvel multiplayer games I'm currently playing, but we are not getting enough single-player superhero experiences for my taste. The story and gameplay Cliffhanger was working on sounds incredible. I was way more excited for this than another installment in the Battlefield series.
I really want Battlefield to be good again, but the franchise has lost its way. Apex Legends has been trending downward for a while, although it's reportedly still profitable for EA.
We discussed the Black Panther cancellation on my podcast and I said then that even if this game felt like "Black Panther: Arkham Asylum" it was still something I wanted to experience. Black Panther: Shadow of Mordor would have been even better. It's hard to be excited about any of EA's other projects right now.