Former Black Panther Developers Join Wizards of the Coast for New Game Project

A radical of individuals who formerly worked astatine the now-shuttered Cliffhanger Games connected its canceled Black Panther crippled person been picked up by Wizards of the Coast for a caller project.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the radical is led by Monolith Productions seasoned Michael de Plater, who antecedently was manager of plan connected Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and VP, originative for Middle-earth: Shadow of War.

"We were really capable to bring him and 14 cardinal radical that he's worked with determination – and galore of them astatine Monolith – to incubate a caller crippled for us," said Wizards of the Coast president John Hight to GamesIndustry.biz. He added that the task is inactive successful the precise aboriginal stages, and is expected to spell done a "lengthy conception process." Hight compared it to a akin caller D&D video crippled task Wizards of the Coast is supervising nether Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order manager Stig Asmussen.

The 14 different developers joining de Plater are veterans of Cliffhanger Games, a workplace formed nether EA successful 2023 mostly comprised of veterans from de Plater's Shadow of Mordor team. The workplace was moving connected a single-player, action-adventure, open-world Black Panther crippled arsenic portion of a multi-title collaboration betwixt EA and Marvel.

However, the crippled was canceled and the workplace closed earlier this twelvemonth arsenic EA moved to absorption connected lone a tiny fistful of franchises: Battlefield, The Sims, Skate, and Apex Legends, alongside its sports division. It is unclear however galore individuals full were impacted by this shut-down, arsenic others were besides laid disconnected astatine the aforesaid clip from EA's mobile and cardinal teams, though it's believed that the fig was little than the astir 300 individuals EA chopped earlier successful the twelvemonth crossed Respawn and EA Fan Care.

Rebekah Valentine is simply a elder newsman for IGN. You tin find her posting connected BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a communicative tip? Send it to [email protected].