Latest news with #Middle-earth:ShadowofMordor
CNET
29-05-2025
- Business
- CNET
EA Reportedly Cancels Black Panther Game, Shutters Cliffhanger Studio
Almost two years after it was initially announced, EA has reportedly canceled a Black Panther game that was in the works, and the publisher closed the studio that was developing the game. According to a report from IGN, news of the Black Panther game's cancellation came on Wednesday. Along with canceling the game and closing the studio, EA laid off additional workers from various teams, but there were no specifics on the number of people affected. An email from EA Entertainment President Laura Miele laid out these changes along with details about layoffs, saying they were to "sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities," according to IGN. "These decisions are hard," Miele wrote in an email, according to IGN. "They affect people we've worked with, learned from and shared real moments with. We're doing everything we can to support them, including finding opportunities within EA, where we've had success helping people land in new roles." EA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the game's cancellation. EA formed Cliffhanger Games to develop the open-world single-player Black Panther game. Heading the studio was Kevin Stephens, a former VP of Monolith Productions, which made the Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War games. Few other details about the game were known other than that it was supposed to take place in Wakanda, the fictional home of Black Panther. This Black Panther game is different than the Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra game that was announced back in 2022. That game was expected to feature Captain America and Azzuri, T'Challa's grandfather, who was the Black Panther during World War II. Marvel 1943 is being published by Skydance New Media, partnered and Plaion, and was initially planned to come out this year, but Skydance announced earlier in the month that the game is being pushed back to early 2026.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Shadow of Mordor's innovative Nemesis system is locked behind a patent until 2036
Warner Bros Discovery recently shut down a trio of game studios, including the well-regarded Monolith Productions. This has put one of the coolest game mechanics of the 2010s in limbo. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor's excellent Nemesis system is locked behind a patent owned by Warner Bros all the way until 2036, according to reporting by Eurogamer. The Nemesis system was featured in both 2014's Shadow of Mordor and the follow-up Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Simply put, it's a gameplay mechanic in which enemies remember previous encounters with the protagonist. These antagonists, typically orcs in the LOTR games, would use these humiliating memories to fuel their thirst for revenge as they rose through the ranks. This mechanic also worked both ways, so enemies would remember besting you in a previous encounter. It was the best part of those two titles and Monolith had planned on bringing back the mechanic for a now-cancelled Wonder Woman game. Now the system is lying unused, locked behind a patent vault in David Zaslav's mega-yacht or whatever. Gigantic multinational corporations are awesome! *Monolith makes the awesome Nemesis system for Shadow of Mordor, everyone loves it**WB patents it, making it pretty much impossible for other devs to use it**WB shuts down Monolith*RIP the Nemesis system, I guess! — Cade Onder (@Cade_Onder) February 25, 2025 Warner Bros Discovery patented the system in 2016, which you can read right here. The patent is active until 2036, so long as the company keeps up with the associated fees. It's worth noting that in the nine years since patenting the system, it's only been used in a single game. That's Shadow of War, which came out in 2017 and was already in development when Warner Bros went ahead with the patent. It remains to be seen if Warner Bros Discovery will do anything with the Nemesis system. It had nine years of heavy game development to make use of it across its entire IP portfolio, but didn't. In that time period, plenty of Batman games and Hogwarts Legacy all came out. Those would have surely benefited from the unique mechanic. Oh well. WB will still focus some resources on game development, but the company's efforts will be primarily spent on four franchises. These include Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, the DC universe and Game of Thrones. Three of those four seem like good fits for the Nemesis system to me.
