Lionhead Studios closed; Fable Legends cancelled

http://news.xbox.com/2016/03/07/microsoft-studios-changes-uk-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."

RIP

edited 7th Mar '16 7:35:54 AM by Zoroark69

To be honest Fable's time has come and gone, so I'm not that surprised. Its reception was pretty lackluster at every E3 it was shown at.

It was sort of inevitable now that Molyneux isn't around to overhype it with his lies anymore.

So I guess the Molyneux cycle is finally broken?

edited 7th Mar '16 7:52:36 AM by MushroomMuncher

MS are starting to run out of first party studios in europe.

I'm expecting Rare to be the next to go.

Honestly, it'd be a mercy kill as much as it may hurt.

Like, MS's first party studios now are pretty much just 343, Rare, Turn 10 and The Coalition.

I'm really saddened by this - I have the Making of Black and White book and this just means we'll never get another of those games. To be honest, Molyneux over egged things a lot, but on Black and White and, to some extend, Fable 1 he was a lot more restrained. He is a salesman and probably a nightmare to work for, but he is someone with a vision.

This means we'll never see another Fable game (Single player) or another Black and White.

Fable Legends actually isn't that bad (In the beta) - some rather good gameplay elements, though it is a tad linear. Yes, it'd be better if it was singleplayer, but ultimately it's a fun little game and could've taken a Garden Warfare slot in their banner.

Ultimately, though, I think the MS and potentially Lionhead leaderships focus was too limited and they didn't have any clear idea of what they wanted from their I Ps, and potentially didn't have the talent necessary to execute it effectively.

The problem is that a lot of Molyneux's more recent projects have been dismal failures. That Fable game on the Kinect was awful, then there was Godus...

From what I see, Molyneux, Schafer, and Lucas had one same thing: they have good ideas, but they need other people to rein them in.

Still a shame to see the studio go though.

edited 7th Mar '16 9:15:23 AM by onyhow

Oh MS, things just keep getting worse for your game developers....

I don't know about Schafer, but for Molyneux and Lucas (I'm assuming George Lucas here, hopefully ) that phrase applies in very different ways.

In Lucas's case, the problem is that while he has a lot of good ideas, he also has a lot of bad ideas, so he needs someone to phase out the bad and refine the good.

In Molyneux's case, the problem is that there's a massive discrepancy between what he envisions and what is actually possible in the allotted timeframe, so he needs someone who can restrain the hype and potential feature creep to a reasonable level.

Schaefer has scope vs timeframe issues (and knows it, as far as I can tell) but he doesn't have Molyneux's habit of promising the sky, the stars, the moon and the second coming of video games. With Schaefer you tend to have a pretty good idea of what you're going to get; decent writing, quirky and charming characters and setting, a mix of humor and emotional punch, gameplay that does some interesting things without being too far out in left field.

Ah, I see Microsoft is learning from Capkonabisoft in how to handle their I Ps.

Pretty much every European video game company has been bought out and/or destroyed by American companies or Square-Enix. Rockstar, CD Projekt Red and Ubisoft are all that's left.

edited 7th Mar '16 12:23:11 PM by Bat178

You know Molyneux left the company 4 years ago, right?

@Elle: Schafer still needs people to rein him in properly tho. Same as Molyneux and Lucas...it may be for different reasons, but all need those people.

^^ You missed Eastern European developers?

Oh hey, the sooner they let Rare go, the sooner we can get a Rare game series that's not Donkey Kong Country on a Nintendo console.

Overnight Microsoft removed five other developers from their website.

Apart from Lionhead and Press Play, the rest of those studios were Kinect related. I guess the Kinect dream is dead.

And Project Spark.

I figure it's likely that Microsoft wants to focus those funds towards support for the Hololens. Kinect is dead sales wise anyway.

Man, the Kinect was always such a cool and interesting device that could do a lot of neat stuff.....that died because Microsoft kept pushing it towards the 1 thing it really wasn't good at, god damn vidya.

They've already learned their lesson with Holo Lens (ex. They basically said they're not marketing it as a games first device or anything like that because that's how Kinect died) but seriously I don't get why Microsoft attempted a gaming focus with the Kinect 2 after the general consensus on the first one was "cool input device and 3D camera, sucky genes controller)

edited 8th Mar '16 11:56:07 PM by RoboZombie

Because across the corporate world, as long as a senior member of staff is pushing the agenda and has a pet project, it doesn't bloody die. Just like George Lucas - good money goes after bad, investment has to be justified, people will strut and declare how it's a key tentpole of their brand strategy etc.

And then the numbers get juggled to show it was profitable from a certain point of view and they point to vaguely similar things like VR or Skylanders that are TENUOUSLY related and say this is their stake in the market.

Honestly, the recent announcement of syncing Win 10 and XBOX seems to be an acknowledgement that they need to bow out of console manufacture down the line. Without going as far to say that that's what they're doing.

I still wish that Microsoft would at least try to continue producing Kinect 2...just not for gaming purpose. The things other devs managed to do with Kinect is pretty damn awesome...just don't want to see it die.