Despite Canceling Black Panther, EA Says It Still Has Several Unannounced Licensed Games In Development

One of the worst things about the ceaseless slew of layoffs and studio closures over the past few years has been how numb we can become to it. That’s why it’s important for sites like ours to make sure every rough moment is reported – including EA’s recent cancelation of a Black Panther game and the total shuttering of the studio that had been working on it.

Yet, there’s always something else on the horizon. Some shiny new project that we’ve not yet heard about, with millions of dollars being funneled into it, and all its individual developers hoping things go smoothly, and their game lives to see its launch day. And we’ve recently gotten a bit of a scoop on what some of those may look like – assuming we see them.

More To Come

On Friday, we reported on a discussion between Electronic Arts Entertainment President Laura Miele and Variety’s Jennifer Maas concerning The Sims 5, or rather, the lack thereof. Miele believes it wouldn’t be “player-friendly” to start from scratch again with the venerable series, “[giving] up all of the things that you have created.” Suffice it to say, opinions differ on that front, but so it goes.

In the same interview, Miele was asked about the state of EA’s licensed games slate following the botched attempt at a Black Panther game. Miele first mentioned the ongoing support of two existing titles – EA Mobile’s free-to-play Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, and BioWare’s nearly-fifteen-year-old MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Also mentioned were a pair of games in active development. “Star Wars Jedi 3” is probably not the official name for Cal Kestis’ upcoming Jedi subseries threequel, but it’s what the company is publicly labeling it right now, and on the Marvel front, EA Motive has been hard at work on an Iron Man game since 2022.

Beyond the known quantities, however, the interview has given us one of the earliest direct confirmations that Electronic Arts isn’t throwing in the licensed-gaming towel anytime soon:

This tasty morsel was delivered in reference to what the Variety article calls “Disney and Marvel IP”, which includes Star Wars, Marvel, and potentially other fare as well. What else might EA have in store for us? With numerous major publishers striking up deals for a more diverse group of Star Wars games, it’s interesting to note that Electronic Arts might just have plans for A Galaxy Far, Far Away beyond Cal’s adventures. (Here’s hoping for a Star Wars Battlefront 3, eh?)

What should matter most to us is whether EA and other publishers treat their studios with enough integrity to, at the very least, allow them to bring their planned games to fruition. The industry is in a bad way lately, so while I’m always excited to see original universes hatched from the minds of creatively unlimited devs, hopefully there’s at least a bit less of a gamble involved in the construction of video games linked to established IPs.