EA has confirmed the heavily-rumoured Black Panther game, although it failed to mention a release window or intended platforms.
The single-player action-adventure game based on Marvel’s Black Panther is in development at a new Seattle-based EA studio called Cliffhanger Games. EA did not release any screenshots or video of this Black Panther game, but did say it’s an original third-person, single-player adventure developed in partnership with Marvel Games. The logo is below:
The project is led by Kevin Stephens, who was Monolith Productions studio head during development of Shadow of Mordor franchise. EA said others who worked on Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, along with veterans of Halo Infinite, God of War, and Call of Duty, are already part of Cliffhanger.
“We’re dedicated to delivering fans a definitive and authentic Black Panther experience, giving them more agency and control over their narrative than they have ever experienced in a story-driven video game,” Stephens said.
“Wakanda is a rich superhero sandbox, and our mission is to develop an epic world for players who love Black Panther and want to explore the world of Wakanda as much as we do.”
Word that Stephens had started a new EA studio emerged over two years ago, but in today’s announcement EA said Black Panther is “still early in development with a long road ahead”. So don’t hold your breath waiting for this one to come out any time soon.
Black Panther is one of many Marvel games in the works at the moment, including at EA. In October, EA and Marvel signed a multi-title deal for at least three action adventure games for console and PC. The first of these announced was an Iron Man game from Star Wars: Squadrons and the Dead Space remake maker Motive Studios.
A Black Panther game from some of the brains behind Shadow of Mordor is an exciting prospect. 2014’s Shadow of Mordor is a story-based, third-person single-player open-world adventure game that was praised for its patented Nemesis System, which lets non-playable characters remember their prior actions against the game's protagonist and react accordingly. EA said of the Black Panther game it intends to build an expansive and reactive world that empowers players to experience what it is like to take on the mantle of Wakanda’s protector, the Black Panther”, which sounds like it may touch on similar mechanics introduced with the Nemesis System.