Microsoft closes Lionhead studios. (Fable, Black and White) -

[Anchuent Christory]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-03-07-fable-developer-lionhead-studios-to-shut-down

Fable Legends cancelled, any gold purchases made during the closed beta will be refunded.

Somewhat surprising, as Fable legends was one of Microsoft's upcoming "Big guns" and was quite far along in development.

 

[ZehnBoat]

fuck you konamicrosoft

 

[Somar]

Damn Fable fans just can't get a break can they?

 

[Coster]

Damn Fable fans just can't get a break can they?

As a diehard Fable fan it doesn't impact me that Legends was cancelled because it looked like shit and was the opposite of what I wanted from a new Fable. Even Lionhead's closure doesn't impact me because it seems as though they were really intent on not making an actual RPG again.

 

[NumberingYourState]

At least Microsoft canned a doomed project and didn't let it become Skylanders.

 

[Somar]

As a diehard Fable fan it doesn't impact me that Legends was cancelled because it looked like shit and was the opposite of what I wanted from a new Fable. Even Lionhead's closure doesn't impact me because it seems as though they were really intent on not making an actual RPG again.

Yeah to be honest I completely forgot Fable Legends even existed until today.

 

[SP 199]

I like to pretend Fable 2 and 3 didn't exist

 

[Gagamaru]

such is the fate of things touched by peter molyneux.

 

[NumberingYourState]

such is the fate of things touched by peter molyneux.

Peter needs to take an elephant dick to the throat.

 

[Hodor]

And absolutely nothing of value was lost.

 

[NumberingYourState]

Of course the comments sections on news sites regarding this is salty autism.

 

[Anchuent Christory]

Of course the comments sections on news sites regarding this is salty autism.

Sadly, Eurogamer used to have a pretty decent comments section. Now it's almost as bad as Youtube.

 

[Xarpho]

I'm not going to be dancing on the grave of Lionhead, but I can't remember anything from them in the last decade that's been really relevant. I remember Black & White, Fable, and The Movies, but not anything made recently. Frankly, I was surprised they were still in business.

 

[ATM]

I'm pretty sure Lionhead has been functionally braindead for a while now so I'm not really surprised they decided to pull the plug. I imagine anyone with actual talent jumped ship along with Molyneux, but it's still sad to see them close.
I expect they'll be setting their sights on Rare next.

As an aside, I thought Fable 2 was pretty good. Good enough that I purchased the collectors edition of Fable 3 in reasonable faith that it would be decent too (turns out it was fucking shite). Still a bit mad.

 

[Bugaboo]

Which Fable is the one where at the end you have to raise money to stop a blob monster apocalypse

 

[NumberingYourState]

Lol News4Gamer (AKA blatant Sony shills) are approving of the panic button articles while sensible reactions are being reported for "False Content".

Like EA's services being shut down due to unsatisfactory... Service.

Kojima leaves Konami for good due to a hostile work environment, again how does this not make sense?

Oh come on... Nothing surprising here happened, the project was marketed almost never but was running off pure hype fumes and zip else. In fact I've forgotten this Fable MMO or whatever it was giving the Fable brand cancer. It was actually sensible to cut a project that doesn't work then release broken things just to wash your corporate hands of doing any more work. I mean yeah, people lost their jobs, and that's the cold reality of it all.

 

[Keine]

Apparently the game's performance on Xbox One was awful, like literally unplayable with the frame rate drops. With that and the fact that the PC version was Windows 10 exclusive, it was pretty much guaranteed to flop in its current state, sadly.

That said, Fable hasn't really been good since Fable 2.

 

[NumberingYourState]

So Microsoft closed a few other studios, likely due to trimming fat, but now this is a bad thing in a "console war"... Yeah trimming fat makes people lose jobs, but the fact of the matter is, it's barely a rash on Microsoft's body. Rockstar closed down studios and laid off people all the time, and they're still one of the largest developers out there.

 

[Whatisgoingon]

The only games I've played that were made by Lionhead are Fable 2 & Fable 3. I played a demo of that horrible spin-off Fable game on the 360 where the characters are toys or something, but it was so bad I couldn't make it through the demo. I really liked Fable 2, but Fable 3 was a mediocre mess. What pissed me off the most was the fact that there are no menus....so you had to go to a room to select options and everything, and it took tens times longer than just going through a menu would. I also remember thinking that the concept of Black and White sounded cool, and that I was going to get the port/remake (I can't remember if it was of the first or second one) that was announced for the Nintendo DS, but it was quietly cancelled.

And those are all my memories of Lionhead Studios and their games, so make of that what you will.

 

[Kerfuffle]

Lionhead and Fable were just on a long, slow, terminal decline since the release of the original Fable. It is unsurprisingly a shit idea to turn your established RPG series into some fucking weird basketcase of games nobody could understand, including one entirely on-rails, some odd co-op thing I don't even remember and whatever the fuck Legends was supposed to be.