Electronic Arts (EA) has cancelled its Black Panther video game, but there are still plenty of superhero games in development for comic book-loving gamers to get excited about. The Black Panther game from the newly formed studio Cliffhanger Games was announced back in 2023. In the years since, it has sat on a list of long-in-development superhero gaming projects, with no further news about the title being released until recently.
On Wednesday, May 28, it was announced that Black Panther from Electronic Arts and Cliffhanger Games had been canceled, and the studio behind it closed down. The latest Marvel Games title (which was supposed to be one of three from EA) was allegedly going to be a tentpole project from the super-powered universe, joining the likes of Blade, Iron Man, and Wolverine as a hotly anticipated licensed title in development centered on a beloved comic book property.
The Black Panther news came via IGN, as the publisher announced that work on the project had been halted and that all members of the studio behind it (Seattle's Cliffhanger) had been laid off.
This marks the second major superhero game cancellation of the year, following the axeing of Monolith's Wonder Woman and the studio behind it in February.
Reports of the EA Black Panther project date back to 2022, when (ironically enough) former Monolith vice-president Kevin Stephens left the Shadow of War studio to form a new team that would eventually become Cliffhanger Games.
It would then be officially announced as an "open-world single-player game" in 2023 with nothing more than a logo. Updates since then have been scarce, with it now officially being taken off the slate at EA for the gaming giant to "sharpen [its] focus and put [its] creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities," according to an internal email on the cancellation.
Thankfully, Black Panther was only one of several superhero video game projects in the works at various studios across the industry, including another title at EA.
Every Superhero Video Game in Development
Marvel Cosmic Invasion
The most imminent of these super-powered titles is Marvel Cosmic Invasion. Coming from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge studio Tribute Games and publisher Dotemu, Cosmic Invasion takes fans back to the days of quarter-swallowing arcade beat-em-ups.
Harkening back to the 2D brawlers of yesteryear, the new Marvel game stars a cast of classic comic book heroes, including Nova, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Phyla-Vell, and Captain America as they battle their way across dozens of side-scrolling levels to take down the villainous Annihilus.
The game is due out later this year and will be available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox, and PC via Steam.
Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra
EA's Black Panther game was not the only digital adventure starring the Wakandan hero in the works. Skydance Media's Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra is set to come to PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X, and Series S sometime in 2026 (thanks to a recent delay).
The new title from Uncharted game director Amy Hennig takes place during the Second World War. It follows Captain America and Black Panther as they attempt to thwart Hyrda's plans across wartorn Europe.
Rise of Hydra has been described as a "cinematic" epic, the likes of which Hennig has become known in her time in the industry. For the first time, it brings her single-player action-adventure pedigree to the Marvel universe.
Dispatch
The only superhero game on this list not to be based on an existing property in any way is the upcoming narrative adventure title Dispatch.
The new title from Adhoc Studio marks the team's first, as this group of former Telltale Games, Ubisoft, and Night School Studio developers put their stamp on the choose-your-own-adventure template popularized by titles like The Walking Dead, Life Is Strange, and Tales from the Borderlands.
Dispatch is a workplace comedy narrative adventure game starring a team of superheroes for hire. It will be released in 2025 on PC and consoles and features a star-studded cast, including Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad and Laura Baily of Critical Role.
Iron Man
Black Panther was just one of several Marvel Games titles in the works at Electronic Arts. Its cancellation leaves just one announced game in the superhero universe coming from the publisher.
EA Motive (best known for its work on 2017's Star Wars Battlefront 2 campaign and the recent Dead Space remake) is currently hard at work on a new Iron Man game. Announced in a similar way to Black Panther in September 2022, Iron Man is reported to be a single-player action-adventure game focused on Marvel's iconic armored Avenger.
Not much is known about the game other than it is still a priority at EA, but fans have been itching to know what exactly the new Iron Man game will entail, especially coming from the same publisher that nailed Iron Man-like flight in 2019's Anthem.
Blade
Announced as a part of Geoff Keighley's annual Game Awards celebration in December 2023, Blade is set to bring Marvel's iconic vampire hunter into the digital world for the first time from the masters of emergent stealth action at Arkane Lyon.
Coming from the studio best known for its work on the Dishonored franchise, Blade and Arkane seem like a match made in heaven; however, little is known about the title.
There have been a few small nuggets about the game that have made their way out over the years, though. Fans do know the game will be set in Paris as Bladde staves off a vampire invasion of the city, it will be third-person (which will be a departure from Arkane's usual first-person perspective), and it could very well come before Marvel Studios ill-fated Blade movie.
Wolverine
PlayStation's Insomniac Games has become synonymous with excellent superhero games over the last few years with its critically acclaimed Spider-Man series. However, the iconic web-slinger is not the only comic book hero the Los Angeles-based team has its eyes on.
Back in 2021, Marvel's Wolverine was announced with a cryptic trailer showing the claw-bearing mutant sitting at a bar, ready to throw hands. Since then, though, like many of these games, news on the Wolverine front has been relatively quiet.
Fans inadvertently got a taste of the game early in late 2023, as Insomniac was the victim of a widespread hack online, leaking several significant internal assets, including leaked Wolverine gameplay. Despite this, the team has not budged on sharing more about the title, with release information and any specific plot details remaining a mystery (read about when we think Wolverine will be released here).
Untitled Batman Game (Rumored)
Now, we get to the part of the list where these games have not been technically announced but are assumed to be in development. As Warner Bros. Games undergoes a widespread change in strategy, it has been reported that Batman: Arkham studio Rocksteady Games is already hard at work on another single play focused on the Dark Knight.
The news came from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier in February, preceding the cancellation of Monolith's Wonder Woman game. At the time, he reported that the move had been made following the failure of the studio's ill-fated multiplayer shooter Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (which reportedly lost Warner over $100 million).
Specific details of this unannounced Batman game have not yet been disclosed, but some fan speculation has been that it could be a Batman Beyond game set in a future version of the Batman: Arkham universe.
Spider-Man 3 (Rumored)
One of the worst-kept secrets of the superhero video game world has been Insomniac's Spider-Man 3. The last wall-crawling adventure from the Ratchet & Clank studio came back in 2023, seemingly setting up a third game that would see its version of Peter Parker and Miles Morales suit up yet again to take down various super-powered threats.
While not properly announced, there has been plenty of reporting about the Marvel Games threequel over the last several years. In September 2023, Insomniac narrative director Ben Arfmann told io9 that the team hoped to "tell more stories" in the Spider-Man world.
This has been followed up by several cryptic quotes from the game's two primary stars, with Miles Morales actor Nadji Jeter telling The Direct in February that he is "ready to go" for a third game.
