• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Lionhead Studios and Press Play closed. Fable legends cancelled.

Legitimately shocked by that, didn't see it coming.

Real shame as well, I always saw Lionhead as the studio that were the real remnants of Bullfrog, as they demonstrated across Black & White and The Movies.

I hope all the employees manage to find work soon. Real blow for the UK gaming industry to lose yet another AAA-capable studio.
 

KORNdoggy

Member
hope the employees find their feet!

...but can't say i'll miss the studio or the games they made. fable 1 was their last good game imo and right from the get-go legends looked like a huge mistake.
 
RIP.

TBQH, nothing Lionhead has produced has interested me since Black & White. I wish all of them at these studios the best. Hopefully some of them will get absorbed into new companies sooner rather than later.
 
Terrible news. So sudden. Good luck to all who found themselves out of work. I would love to know what is going on with Microsoft's gaming division. So many big changes so suddenly.
 
If Lionhead only had Legends in development I understand MS, all the while while playing it I felt this couldn't be the only thing they were making.

Wonder what MS will make of the Fable series, whether they'll use it again or not.
 
I played the beta a few times, was still getting updates. Didn't like the game at all, and was expecting it to be a commercial failure since it seemed to be in development hell, but I didn't expect a cancellation and closure of Lionhead.

What will become of the final build? Is this about to be one of those games that disappears despite being really far along and numerous people had played it?
 

eFKac

Member
This seems to be the first of the three threads.

I mean I can imagine nobody was waiting for Legends, but surely this was known for some time now, so why let it go on for so long and then suddenly burn the whole studio down.

Maybe there's no competing with Canada's tax "breaks"?

Or is MS going to consolidate in NA? Which European studios are left?

Rare nad Mojang and Lift I think (is the last one even active?)

I could see Rare going belly up, but Mojang is here to stay even if only to manage Minecraft.
 

deleted

Member
Woah. Out of nowhere. There goes my hope for a Black & White 3 when MS decided to focus on PC more...

I always liked Lionhead. Even when B&W didn't deliver at all :p
 
Man they pulled the plug on this real late into its cycle. I bet we will find a copy of this on a dev console one day like so many other late canceled projects.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Very sad to hear. I had always hoped that Lionhead and Fable could get back on track. It was such a great franchise. I played so much of Fable 1 and 2 and even 3 despite its issues.

I didn't really follow Legends development but I thought it was releasing imminently. I thought this was one of MS's bigger games, they always seemed to have it at shows and stuff.
 

Kaako

Felium Defensor
Yeah, it felt almost final. It had microtransactions in it already. This news is insane.
Wooow...some major shit went down then if that's the case. And higher ups must've really not been happy with it(?)
This makes little sense especially considering it was almost finished.
 
What on earth is happening with Microsoft, even if Fable Legends wasn't working, Lionhead developed one of the few strong IPs you've ever had, not a good look.
 

Logash

Member
Legends was one of the last relics of the whole always online story that the Xbox One had. It really wasn't Fable, regardless if the game was good or not. Not really that surprised it got canceled. The studio closing down on the other hand... It's sad that a bunch of people lost their jobs and I hope they all find a place.
 
Top Bottom