While it recently canceled the in-development Black Panther game, publisher EA has stated its intent to continue working on other titles based on Marvel’s IPs. Speaking to IGN, EA Entertainment president Laura Miele maintained that the three-game deal that EA and Marvel had signed back in 2023 is still in effect, and that the partnership between the two companies remains strong.
“Our partnership with Marvel remains strong and our multi-title, long-term collaboration continues,” said Miele in a statement.
Another statement by a spokesperson for Marvel also reiterated the same idea, saying that both companies remain dedicated to their collaboration to make original games based on Marvel’s various IPs.
“The multi-title, long-term relationship between Marvel Games and EA, a creative collaboration focused on original storytelling with various, beloved Marvel characters, remains strong,” said Marvel’s spokesperson. “Development of our console and PC titles, beginning with Marvel’s Iron Man, is led by Motive Studios.”
The cancellation of Black Panther, long with the closure of the studio working on it – Cliffhanger Games – was discovered earlier this week. “These decisions are hard. They affect people we’ve worked with, learned from, and shared real moments with,” said Miele in an email to employees announcing the cancellation and studio closure. “We’re doing everything we can to support them – including finding opportunities within EA, where we’ve had success helping people land in new roles.”
The Black Panther game was not the only Marvel game officially confirmed by EA. The company has also been working on a game based on Iron Man. However, we haven’t yet heard much in the way of details about this Iron Man game, aside from the fact that it is being developed by EA Motive, and that, earlier this month, the studio was looking to hire a level designer.
“Since [Dead Space’s launch], our focus has switched to the Iron Man project, giving us the opportunity to work (and play!) with another extraordinary property,” wrote Klaus when announcing that the studio had hit a major milestone in the development of the Iron Man game. “We’re still early in pre-production and taking our time to make sure we set the best possible foundation for development. But already, we’re finding so many opportunities to explore story, design and gameplay with Iron Man, and it’s exciting to see the fantasy start coming alive.”
According to a 2022 report by Bloomberg, Iron Man was slated to be the first of the games that would be part of the multi-game deal signed between EA and Marvel. It is quite likely that the canceled Black Panther project would have been the second game, and an unknown third-title might still be in development. It is also possible that EA has decided to replace the Black Panther game’s spot in the deal with a new project internally. However, no announcements about this have been made.
For more on EA’s recent cancellation of Black Panther, check out the thoughts of some of its developers, as well as our own thoughts on what could have gone wrong with the project.