[guru3d] Fable Legends Cancelled Lionhead Studios to Close

[AtenRa]

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/fable-legends-cancelled-lionhead-studios-to-close.html


what the hell ???

And the studio founded by Peter Molyneux could be closed. The news was revealed on the official Xbox newswire by Hanno Lemke, general manager of Microsoft Studios Europe.
"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," he explained. Lionhead, a British studio founded by Peter Molyneux in 1996, has developed acclaimed titles in the Black & White and Fable series. It was acquired by Microsoft in 2006. Molyneux left Microsoft and Lionhead in March 2012 reports gamespot today.

 

[railven]

Think it caught everyone by surprise.

I have no idea what MSFT is planning. But they are not making good faith decisions with this one.

 

[Silverforce11]

They also shut down a few other studios too. Not just Lionhead.

Their "strategic" goal is to only make blockbuster games like Quantum Break.

Let's see how that turns out.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Almost finished game cancelled. Someone wanted his Q2 expense cut bonus. Press Play's Project Knoxville also went into the bin.

 

[Snarf Snarf]

Sounds like they became a victim of their own F2P strategy they opted for. In order to get people to pour $$ into a F2P game the content has to be good enough to warrant it. Microsoft probably didn't see much longevity in the game or that they didn't have enough dynamic content to provide an experience people would continue to pay for over time. Chances are the ROI was not what they wanted and just axed the idea before they bled out from up keep.

 

[Bacon1]

Almost finished game cancelled. Someone wanted his Q2 expense cut bonus. Press Play's Project Knoxville also went into the bin.

From people that were in the beta, it sounded like the game was kind of in limbo and not progressing well. Since it was F2P there is no point in releasing it broken / unpolished as they can't make money off it unlike many other games where you pay up front. So instead of pouring more money in it went bye bye.

Sad I was looking forward to trying it out.

 

[Despoiler]

Think it caught everyone by surprise.

The game was still under NDA. I beta tested it for several weeks. Absolutely terrible game. So unbelievably boring. There was literally one character out of 20 or so that had a good kit and was fun to play. The rest were so uninventive. The villain mode was an OK idea with terrible execution. 60 seconds to setup. Can use default monster templates or come up with your own. Adventurers started with 3 HP pots every game. They didn't have to earn anything. The villain gained nothing during the match for doing well. There was zero give and take during the match. Zero replay value built into the maps. Unless the group of adventurers was functionally retarded they would beat the villain every time.