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EA is cancelling its Black Panther game and closing the studio creating it, Cliffhanger Games, as part of a larger round of layoffs at the company, IGN reports. The third-person action-adventure game was originally announced in July 2023 as one of several Marvel projects being developed at EA studios.

IGN writes that a smaller number of people are being laid off than the previous round of cuts that impacted Titanfall developer Respawn, but EA is still eliminating roles outside of Cliffhanger, including people on the publisher's "mobile and central teams." EA is reportedly telling staff that the layoffs are a way to "sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities."

As of right now, those "opportunities" include an Iron Man game in development at EA Motive, the next Star Wars Jedi game from Respawn, and new entries in a few key franchises, like The Sims, Battlefield, Skate and Apex Legends. Beyond that, the company has EA Sports and the next Mass Effect game, though Bioware has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs since 2023, so there's uncertainty there, too. In a similar way to how it approached Bioware's restructuring, IGN reports that EA is trying to find roles for at least some Cliffhanger Games staff in other parts of the company.

Engadget has contacted EA for comment and will update this article if we hear back.

EA growing disinterest in licensed games as been public since at least February 2024, when CEO Andrew Wilson announced that the company was "moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry." The company recently announced a new strategy game using the Star Wars license — Star Wars Zero Company — but that seems more like an outlier than the norm.

EA's Black Panther game wasn't the only project featuring the character — Amy Hennig's Marvel 19943: Rise of Hydra hasn't been cancelled yet — but it does seems strange the company gave up so easily. Black Panther made over $1.3 billion during its original run in theaters. It seems entirely possible the same audience that enjoyed the movie would show up for a new game featuring their favorite Marvel character.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ea-cancels-black-panther-game-and-closes-studio-developing-it-213258110.html?src=rss

X users can no longer send encrypted messages on the platform. The company said in an update that it's "pausing" the feature "while we work on making some improvements." Users will still be able to view previously-sent encrypted chats, but won't be able to send any new ones.

Up to now, encrypted DMs have been available only on messages between verified users who are mutual or who have previously accepted DMs from each other. Screenshots of the feature from X's help center labeled it as "early access." (Notably, there were a number of other important caveats to X's encryption, even when it was working, including the fact that encryption was never available for group chats, multimedia messages or metadata .)

It's unclear when the feature will be available again or if the "pause" has anything to do with "XChat," the company's yet-to-be-launched chat platform. X employees have been dropping hints about XChat, which will reportedly feature encrypted direct messages, for some time. Screenshots from leakers suggest XChat could have additional security features like PIN-protected chats.

Officially, though, X hasn't revealed much about XChat or what's going on with the current version of encrypted DMs. X's in-app inbox was one of the features that experienced numerous issues last week after a site-wide outage — possibly due to a fire at an Oregon facility used by the company — caused days of technical problems for the service. Updates on the company's developer platform page indicate some of those issues have yet to be resolved.

X didn't respond to a request for comment.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-is-pausing-encrypted-dms-215750222.html?src=rss