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[JaggedSac]

Microsoft and Xbox management are "more committed to gaming and Xbox than ever before"

*Has Twisted Pixel go independent, closes Lionhead, closes Press Play*

Seems they are getting rid of smaller and more outlying studios and focusing their internal efforts on Gears, Halo, Forza.

Looks like they see more value in utilizing outside developers to help bolster their other owned IP catalogue (KI, Crackdown, Scaleboune, QB, ect)

Rare being the only outlier left. and well, Mojang is Minecraft is Mojang.

There is certainly less risk involved with farming out the work.

 

[kami_sama]

Even like 5 hours ago, they didn't seem to know.

Source

It must have hit like a hammer.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Even like 5 hours ago, they didn't seem to know.

Source

This is just brutal. Ice cold.

 

[nib95]

I don´t have time to get into it, but there are a bunch of financial reasons to shut down an entire company even if you end up re-hiring some of them for a different company later on.

Cheeper than shrinking down a company.

Have any of their new studios even been able to deliver tent pole mega hits the way some of the older one's have? Only one I can think of is 343i, who's sole purpose seems to be to just carry on the Halo legacy as oppose to creating something new of equal merit.

 

[Coulomb_Barrier]

Very surprising.

Fable used to be one of the exclusive pillars of Xbox alongside Halo, Gears and Fable. Now it's gone. Now you'll be able to get all those remaining exclusives on PC (future Halo will be PC as well). How times have changed.

 

[Warxard]

All the free to plays on XBox are getting culled

Gigantic, in jeopardy
phantom dust cancelled and closed down
fable legends cancelled and closed down.

Free to play is never exciting so....

"These changes are taking effect as Microsoft Studios continues to focus its investment and development on the games and franchises that fans find most exciting and want to play."

Make sense. There is tens of free to play games i could play right now on these consoles and not one of them do i find enticing.

Gigantic just got a pretty big update a week ago! New character, maps, big rebalancing etc!

 

[ironcreed]

All the free to plays on XBox are getting culled

Gigantic, in jeopardy
phantom dust cancelled and closed down
fable legends cancelled and closed down.

Free to play is never exciting so....

"These changes are taking effect as Microsoft Studios continues to focus its investment and development on the games and franchises that fans find most exciting and want to play."

Make sense. There is tens of free to play games i could play right now on these consoles and not one of them do i find enticing.

I agree with that. I generally do not give a rat's ass about all of these free to play games and I certainly had no interest in Fable Legends. I just hate seeing the sudden closure of a studio like this that was sitting on a nearly finished game.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Gigantic just got a pretty big update a week ago! New character, maps, big rebalancing etc!

Fable Legends just got an update like 4 days ago.

Man, this is wack.

 

[chubigans]

Microsoft and Xbox management are "more committed to gaming and Xbox than ever before"

*Has Twisted Pixel go independent, closes Lionhead, closes Press Play*

Seems they are getting rid of smaller and more outlying studios and focusing their internal efforts on Gears, Halo, Forza.

Looks like they see more value in utilizing outside developers to help bolster their other owned IP catalogue (KI, Crackdown, Scaleboune, QB, ect)

Rare being the only outlier left. and well, Mojang is Minecraft is Mojang.

Oh, I forgot about Twisted Pixel. I wonder how their thing is going.

 

[Paradoxmoose]

 

[McBradders]

Sad news indeed. I hope everyone affected lands on their feet. I enjoyed Fable II a lot, and the first Black and White.

 

[Green Yoshi]

I feel bad for the employees.

I think I will play Fable 2 this evening:

 

[JetBlackPanda]

wow how many games shown at Microsoft events and E3's are now canceled? what the hell is going on.

edit: eh most of them were free to play.

 

[Zedox]

I had beta access but I never took advantage of it just because I've been busy and thought "I'm in no hurry, I'll just check it out when it's released."

Whoops. Sort of regretting not trying it out now.

I understand the decision but it's still sad. I hope Fable Anniversary comes to backwards compatibility soon.

I was thinking the same thing but now i'm happy that I didn't pour so much time into the game only for it to never come out. Weird how Fable Legends gets the axe and Lionhead is closed and Motiga had to let people off as well.

So it will be a while before we get another Fable. I want to know what led to this decision. Something REALLY bad had to go down for this sudden announcement.

 

[Alienous]

Even like 5 hours ago, they didn't seem to know.

Source

And evidently there's a third possibility, the took too long and is cancelled game.

 

[neurosyphilis]

Wow that's really fucked up Microsoft. Hope these people can find jobs quickly.

 

[DeepEnigma]

So did Phil Spencer worked before at Microsoft or did he just sat and do nothing? He was the head of Microsoft Studios.

No no no, Phil is a savior, Mattrick is to get all the blame for the next 10 years. Stop messing with the mental gymnastics.

 

[Psyrgery ES]

Jesus. Out of nowhere, hope these guys will find new jobs soon.

Xbox brand, am cry.

 

[Indelible]

Sad to see any game studio close, I really enjoyed the original Fable back in the day.

 

[JeremyEtcetera]

Sigh. You get this from a studio closing despite the other ips that are releasing?

Ot...this was quite the shock. Really wanted to at least try the game.

I would guess that poster is getting it from all of the recent news around MS, from their standpoint on hardware that will be updated like a PC, to all of their console exclusives being sent to PC, and then this news along with Phantom Dust. It makes it more and more likely that the Xbox brand(hardware) is becoming more of an Xbox service(software).

 

[meanspartan]

With how complete it looked, you'd think they'd say fuck it and just release it.

Was it THAT bad?

 

[Shin-Ra]

I wonder what Peter Molyneux has to say regarding this.

Amusingly unrelated but related.

Unreal Engine 4's benefited from Lionhead's work I suppose.

 

[Mikey Jr.]

The entire game cancelled? Holy shit.

 

[Dinjooh]

Even like 5 hours ago, they didn't seem to know.

Source

Huh, that Miyamoto quote didn't actually end up working out for Lionhead.

 

[SymbiantXenos]

Really unexpected news. Sad to see

 

[DopeyFish]

It's hard to be a microsoft gaming studios

Microsoft studios are rather public, because they were bought as separate entities and maintained as separate entities and the people were employed by those separated entities.

So what tends to happen is when a studio closes, it's public. An internal studio closing would result in general layoffs and restructuring/reallocation of talent.

For some companies, you just don't hear about it when it happens... the studio just disappears and another is formed.

 

[K' Dash]

You can go so far lying and cheating, after Fable 2 I swore not to buy anything from Peter Molineux ever again.

 

[E92 M3]

Sad to see this happen, but Fable legends wasn't an interesting game at all. I am not shocked =/

 

[onQ123]

The Hell?


Sad

 

[Get_craycray]

FYI (don't know if it has already been said)

Fable Legends closed beta will continue until April 13. No new players will be admitted. Players who purchased gold will be given a refund.

https://twitter.com/VG_Dave/status/706870654390374400

 

[GlamFM]

Have any of their new studios even been able to deliver tent pole mega hits the way some of the older one's have? Only one I can think of is 343i, who's sole purpose seems to be to just carry on the Halo legacy as oppose to creating something new of equal merit.

I think Playground Studios and Forza Horizon is a nice success-story.

It´s an all start team with developers from all the different racing studios that were shut down in the last 5 or so years.

 

[HighResTomato]

To be fair this game wasn't greenlit under Phil nor were the other shitty spin-offs.

I don't think these type of excuses will fly anymore, Phil has been there long enough to make changes where needed. These games have made multiple gameshow appearances.

Instead of allowing lion head to go back and work on anything else but fable they close it down. I don't know what changed with Xbox/MS since the 360 but they look keen on making mistake after mistake wether it's to do with PC gaming or Console gaming.

 

[theWB27]

I would guess that poster is getting it from all of the recent news around MS, from their standpoint on hardware that will be updated like a PC, to all of their console exclusives being sent to PC, and then this news along with Phantom Dust. It makes it more and more likely that the Xbox brand(hardware) is becoming more of an Xbox service(software).

This point is fair. I know they're the main one hoping for an all digital future. I get it.

 

[twobear]

With how complete it looked, you'd think they'd say fuck it and just release it.

Was it THAT bad?

the plan was always to continue it with extensive post-launch support, right? so from that point of view the amount of money they've already invested in it might not be the lions share (pun not intended) of the amount they felt they needed to invest over its lifetime.

that's the only way i can see this making sense, otherwise you'd close the studio after launch.

 

[bloodforge]

I've been playing the Fable Legends beta for awhile now and I like it a lot. Felt like it was nearing release. What a waste.

 

[Mr. Nice_Guy]

Jesus, I felt like this game was taking a while to come out but no one was expecting this. best of luck to all the employees.

 

[Stilton Disco]

Damn, I loved Fable 2, and really enjoyed 3 and Anniversary, really this just sucks.

Hope everyone finds employment quickly too. This whole thing just sucks.

What the hell Is MS doing at the moment? It's like they're trying to change the direction of their games devision so quickly and sharply that they've completely forgotten about the importance of the actual games they're meant to be producing.

 

[Yoday]

Even like 5 hours ago, they didn't seem to know.

Source

Yep, sounds like they were going to delay again, and MS probably just saw the writing on the wall and cut their losses.

 

[Chiaroscuro]

No way! Not Press Play too, I love their games.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Fable 1 and 2 were also put out well before they should have, as evidenced by Fable 1 getting an actual "complete" version in a re-release and Fable 2 being just as hacked together, with an ending where the last fight is you

Spoiler

literally press one button.

Lionhead released games that, to their credit, did a lot of experimentation, but most of that experimentation ultimately hurt the games themselves because it had that "Molydeux" flair.

While true, Fable 3 was very rushed; didn't it just get 2 years of dev time after Fable 2 shipped? I enjoyed the first game, warts and all, and thought Fable 2 was remarkable, if not perfect. It was a good expansion of the ideas from the first game. But Fable 3 looked like a rushed mess and I never picked it up.

 

[DeepEnigma]

FYI (don't know if it has already been said)



https://twitter.com/VG_Dave/status/706870654390374400

Why continue the beta? Seems rather odd.

 

[Footos22]

Really? Then why kill it? Odd.

I played it and hated it. It was extremely pretty though,.A proper fable with that engine would of been sublime.

 

[gamz]

I believe this was the article that discussed Microsoft's issues when attempting to implant their management style onto studios they've acquired in the past and why it failed to work:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-08-who-killed-rare

"From the inside the studio's gates, too, the changes to Rare introduced by Microsoft tampered with the recipe of the company's success, leaving teams feeling disorientated, and even downcast.

"The changes were imperceptible at first, but became increasingly rapid as time went on," says Phil Tossell. Hired by Hollis in 1997, he cut his teeth on Diddy Kong Racing before working as lead engineer on Dinosaur Planet (which later became Starfox Adventures). He was present at the company through the Microsoft acquisition, and was promoted to Director of Gameplay in 2009 when he oversaw development of Kinect Sports. "For me personally, the atmosphere became much more stifling and a lot more stressful," he says. "There was an overall feeling that you weren't really in control of what you were doing and that you weren't really trusted either.

"There was also a gradual introduction of certain Microsoft behaviours that crept into the way we did things: lots more meetings, performance reviews and far more regard for your position within the company," he said. "While these weren't necessarily good or bad per se, they began to erode the traditional Rare culture and way of doing things. Many of the people who'd been there a long time found these changes extremely hard to accept.""


--


I believe there were other articles with a similar theme. MS management and decision-making are probably a big culprit here, but the obituary will be written for Lionhead soon enough.

That article was from 4 years ago. Their management style has changed since Satya took over.

 

[Alienous]

FYI (don't know if it has already been said)



https://twitter.com/VG_Dave/status/706870654390374400

Weird.

That they'll continue it and that they were selling 'gold' in a beta.

 

[Helznicht]

Terrible. The game was probably awful.

Hardly. Game was a blast and easily one of the best looking games this gen. Sure it had some wrinkles (no USB mic on PC as an example), but I consider this one of the LARGEST wastes in the history of Xbox. Time to put up Screens and Vids me thinks.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

That's kind of fucked up lol

You think that's bad. The grapevine is saying that the employees were in a meeting being told the moment it went public. So apparently they didn't know until the same moment the world found out.

 

[Ascenion]

Damn....I can understand canceling Legends, it looked like shit and 3 years later with nothing to show this was definitely coming. Closing Lionhead though? Why? People still like Fable, Fable 4 would have sold I'm positive. Damn....I hope everyone lands on their feet, Fable 2 comprises some good memories.

 

[Look! The Pie!]

Legit upset by this news. Lionhead created one of my all-time favourite games in Fable 2, and I even enjoyed the later games (including The Journey) for what they were. I was disappointed that Legends wasn't going to be a proper Fable game, but I still hoped to play it at some point.

Feel for all those losing their jobs, and hope as many of them are snapped up by other studios as possible.

 

[Bigmac1910]

1. What the actual f... is my first reaction.
2. Damn it MS, one of the reasons that I bought an Xbox One was for the Fable franchise.
3. Are they thinking about leaving the console business after all?

I do feel for the employees though, I don't know what game studios could absorb all those people, I do hope they land on their feet soon.

 

[LordBaztion]

I loved the art direction of Fable games and I could just wonder a true Fable with the Legends' assets. However, I only played a bit of Fable 2, it never hooked me but I love the seeting and never went far beyond the begining in Fable 3.. I bought last december the HD Collection to play it eventually in X1. Too bad for the outcome of the studio.
Its shitty from MS for not informing the staff in advace about the closure.