EA Reportedly Stays All-In on ‘Marvel’s Iron Man’ Game as It Closes BioWare

It has been a long time since Tony Stark’s armor got a proper console showcase. When EA first revealed its project in 2022, the game was set to be the first non-VR ‘Iron Man’ title since 2010. Fans have been waiting ever since, and the wait has included long stretches of silence.

The project comes from Motive Studio, the Montreal team behind the ‘Dead Space’ remake and ‘Star Wars: Squadrons’. It was announced as a single-player, third-person action-adventure built with Marvel Games around an original story, and it was described as the first of several planned games under a wider EA and Marvel deal. Olivier Proulx, who previously worked on ‘Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy’, leads the team.

Years went by with little to show, until an unfinished build leaked in August. Roughly 2.5 minutes of footage carrying a test watermark appeared online, and Motive confirmed it was genuine through the game’s official X account. That brings us to this week, when the EA commitment to ‘Marvel’s Iron Man’ was reaffirmed at a moment when the publisher is cutting deeply elsewhere.

According to a report from Variety, EA is restructuring its studios business in its first major move since going private this summer. In the same message, the executives said the company remains committed to delivering on “two huge launches coming up”: ‘Marvel’s Iron Man’ and the next ‘Star Wars Jedi’ game.

The framing matters. EA described action-adventure as one of the most competitive and high-stakes genres in the industry, where every game needs the company’s full weight behind it. The report adds that EA will focus on fewer large-scale action-adventure projects at a time.

The restructuring is substantial. Layoffs are expected to affect about 3% of EA’s global workforce, which works out to around 400 people based on its last reported headcount of 14,500. BioWare, the studio behind ‘Dragon Age’ and ‘Mass Effect’, is being shut down as part of the move.

Other parts of the company are being reshuffled rather than closed. Respawn and DICE are reportedly set to work together on a future project that multiple sources identify as ‘Star Wars: Battlefront 3’, and EA plans to keep investing heavily in ‘Apex Legends’. In that context, naming ‘Iron Man’ alongside ‘Star Wars Jedi’ signals which licensed games the publisher considers worth protecting.

It is worth noting that the 2 launches named do not include the open-world Black Panther game that was reportedly the second title in the Marvel deal.

This is not the first round of cuts that ‘Iron Man’ has weathered. In February 2024, EA laid off about 670 employees, cancelled Respawn’s Star Wars shooter and said it was moving away from future licensed IP. Even then, the company confirmed that ‘Iron Man’ and the Black Panther game were still in development.

Seen that way, the latest reassurance reads as a pattern rather than a surprise. Each time EA trims its slate, the Motive game has stayed on the list, even as other licensed projects fell away.

Details remain thin. The leaked footage suggests a game built around fast flight and layered combat, which is what an armored hero needs to deliver, but it was unpolished and there is no official timeline. EA has not shared a release date, and with the test build dated just 2 days before it leaked, reporting suggests a 2027 launch or later is more realistic.

Motive has also said it will use Unreal Engine 5 for the project rather than EA’s proprietary Frostbite engine. That choice was disclosed back in 2023, and it hints at how long the studio has been working on the game.

For fans, the practical takeaway is simple. A project that has been quiet for years just got another public vote of confidence from the people holding the budget, and that may matter more than any single trailer.

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