Microsoft Closing Lionhead Studios, Cancels Fable Legends

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According to this blog post, Lionhead Studios is no more and development of Fable Legends has been cancelled. Microsoft is also closing down Press Play, just four years after acquiring the studio.


Today, I have some difficult changes to announce that affect some of our Microsoft Studios teams and projects in the UK and Denmark. After much consideration we have decided to cease development on Fable Legends, and are in discussions with employees about the proposed closure of Lionhead Studios in the UK. Additionally, we will close Press Play Studios in Denmark, and sunset development on Project Knoxville.
 
That's funny, I thought Lionhead closed down when Peter Molyneux left. I guess the writing has been on the wall for a while there.
 
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Surprising, but not so surprising?

Fable 2/3 didn't sell nearly as well as the first one. You can see how the less-selling titles have been abandoned after the closing of GFWL. And since Fable 2 was a straight sequel, and Fable 3 was a completely new formula, there's not much else they can do with the title.

Titles with mass amounts of content and low sales don't make money. I'm sure Peter left because he saw the writing on the wall.
 
Microsoft doesn't really acquire companies. It acquires IP. They bought Bungie for Halo and nothing else. They bought Lionhead for Fable. I think it's likely Fable will live on in some form at some other in house developer, just as the zombie of Halo shambled over to some other team.
 
Fable Legends was a waste of time. I've enjoyed the Fable series for what it was, and wouldn't mind seeing a proper fourth game under the right development team.
 
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DeathFromBelow said:
TLDR: All the talent at these companies left after the Microsoft acquisition. Microsoft continues to manage an empire into the ground.
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Right, and Microsoft management likely killed Fable 2 by locking it to Xbox 360 only. Similar to Elder Scrolls, they could have continued to bridge the gap and entice new players with every release by supporting PC and console.

But Microsoft decided Fable 2 would be a platform seller. And everyone outside of the 360 world forgot Fable existed.
 
Elios said:
was in beta for Fable Legends it was a shitty game nothing of value was lost
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I was in the beta also. Having played and enjoyed the Fable games I was looking forward to this game, was greatly disappointed and after a single game exited to dashboard and uninstalled the game. No idea how the hero part looked as after waiting 1 hour to get into a match I was the bad guy and didn't want to wait another hour or longer to play another match to see what the other side looked like.
 
Ho HO!!!

Well, let's go back and edit out the Fable Legends part of that BS directX 12 video then!!!
 
HardUp4HardWare said:
Ho HO!!!

Well, let's go back and edit out the Fable Legends part of that BS directX 12 video then!!!
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But DX12 is 8 feet tall and shoots lightning bolts out of its arse!

People are going to be so disappointed when DX12 does not double the frame rates on their old GTX670, cure cancer and get them down to a non-obese BMI. I'm sure it'll be fine, but there is no way that it will live up to the hype that has been constructed around it.
 
WTH Microsoft. You killed off one of my favorite games ever. You essentially also killed off RARE. I was so looking forward to Fable Legends as it was a chance to finally see the land of Albion on the XB1.
 
amdgamer said:
WTH Microsoft. You killed off one of my favorite games ever. You essentially also killed off RARE. I was so looking forward to Fable Legends as it was a chance to finally see the land of Albion on the XB1.
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Did you try that piece of shit game? This isn't a Fable game like you are used to. It is the game Evolve but with an overhead view.
 
The game was terrible. I tried to play in on two different occasions (in case I just was having a bad day the first time) and it was not fun at all. It felt so stripped of everything fable other than the title and names.
 
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Elios said:
was in beta for Fable Legends it was a shitty game nothing of value was lost
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Darunion said:
The game was terrible. I tried to play in on two different occasions (in case I just was having a bad day the first time) and it was not fun at all. It felt so stripped of everything fable other than the title and names.
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Me too, I guess I don't need to fear the NDA anymore. That game was one of the biggest pieces of crap I have ever tried. There was no direction on what it was supposed to be or where it was going. The art style was about the only thing that was Fable. It is still surprising MS would can the whole studio, considering the history of the Fable franchise.

I kind of think Microsoft is backing itself into a wall. They have lost Bungie doing Halo, they lost Epic Games doing GoW, Lionhead is out, I wouldn't expect a further relationship from Square Enix, they killed Rare years ago, the list just keeps growing... Oh I forgot, they have the Gaming Juggernaut Majong and all of the titles they pump out.
 
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Fable has ALWAYS been one of those 'loss leader' style games where it always seemed to make you want a better game than you were playing, and everything was perfectly balanced to be innovatively mediocre.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
TLDR: All the talent at these companies left after the Microsoft acquisition. Microsoft continues to manage an empire into the ground.
Click to expand...

That is overstating things , saying that Microsoft has management is already close to science fiction and here you hint they actually did "manage it". Aren't you ashamed of such grandstanding on MS behalf ?

If (yes _IF_ ) Microsoft had management then this would not have happened it is clear that MS does not know how to do things.
 
Dunnlang said:
But DX12 is 8 feet tall and shoots lightning bolts out of its arse!

People are going to be so disappointed when DX12 does not double the frame rates on their old GTX670, cure cancer and get them down to a non-obese BMI. I'm sure it'll be fine, but there is no way that it will live up to the hype that has been constructed around it.
Click to expand...
I still remember when DirectX 10 was coming out and there were talks of how games could now have virtually limitless polygon counts. The simple fact is even if DirectX 12 can cure cancer, most developers will only use it in a very limited capacity so they don't alienate customers who don't have DX12 compatible hardware and OS.

I hope Fable stays dead now. "Every swing of your sword will change the way your character looks!" gtfo Peter Molyneux, liar.
 
Between this, the incredibly VAGUE announcements of hardware upgrades for the Xbone, and the incredibly shitty experience on Games for Windows Live 2 *cough* I mean, Windows Store, I truly believe that MS will be completely out of the games business by the end of the year. Good riddance.
 
jnemesh said:
Between this, the incredibly VAGUE announcements of hardware upgrades for the Xbone, and the incredibly shitty experience on Games for Windows Live 2 *cough* I mean, Windows Store, I truly believe that MS will be completely out of the games business by the end of the year. Good riddance.
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yeah.... no. Xbox One is the most successful console launch they had so far out of the 3. They aren't going anywhere.
 
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