For nylig valgte EA at aflyse Black Panther-spillet og direkte lukke studiet bag, Cliffhanger. Nu bliver der kastet yderligere lys over hvad der er sket, og det placerer ikke EA i noget synderligt positivt lys.
Jason Schreier har snakket med et hav af ansatte, og kan rapportere at lukningen kom som et totalt chok hos Cliffhanger, eftersom Black Panther netop havde passeret en såkaldt "gate", som ellers ville indikere at EA var tilfredse med projektet, også selvom det er kom efter en lidt længere periode i præproduktion:
"The news came as a shock to many Cliffhanger employees, according to people familiar with this week's events. Cliffhanger was actively hiring staff, and Black Panther had recently passed what EA calls a "gate" — a development milestone where executives review a game's progress and decide whether to continue production. The team had momentum, and the project was coalescing, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing nonpublic information."
Men EA's beslutning lader til at være baseret på de samme præmisser som fik dem til at lukke ned for projekter hos Respawn - de har lukket ned for de spil der har brugt længst tid på at komme i gang:
"Others familiar with the project told me that EA executives were frustrated that the game had not yet left the pre-production phase after nearly four years in development. As EA assessed its portfolio earlier this year, it eliminated some of the projects that had been in development for a long time but had made the least amount of progress, including incubation projects at Respawn and this Black Panther game."