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[jesu]

I called this back with Fable 2.

Fable 1 was to me the best. Regardless of peoples expectations the gameplay was solid and the story was enjoyable and it was very funny at moment. (See Chicken Kicker.).

Fable 2 was the first time I get really worried about Lionhead. I had been paying attention to a lot of the hype around the game and what the devs had been claiming would be in the game. It seemed like it would become a classic. Within 20 mins of playing it I realised that the one thing I really cared about, the gameplay, was not great. It felt really artificial and lack luster. I couldn't even finish the game. I got close, but each time I just couldn't find the will to carry on. It was missing a huge amount of the features promised and while I didn't feel cheated, I wasn't happy.

Spore was the kicker though. It was not what was promised. It was the bare minimum and it was clear it was never going to be more than that. Fable 3 was just a bigger indicator that Lionhead was heading the wrong way.

Which huge amount of features were cut from Fable 2?

 

[zashga]

Wow, out of nowhere. And here I thought Fable Legends was basically complete and just waiting for the right time to launch, possibly as part of MS's latest PC gaming initiative. Guess not.

Hope everyone affected lands on their feet.

 

[outunderthestars]

from the wire:



they are making clear that they are not "next".

Let's see how Sea of Thieves does financially.....

 

[Obliterator]

from the wire:



they are making clear that they are not "next".

That means nothing though. Its MS PR. They say all kinds of stuff. Rare might not be next, who knows, but if Sea of Thieves fails they certainly need to be watched with a close eye

 

[LeonSPBR]

Hope the guys that worked on Lionhead Studios and Press Play find new job fast.

 

[VanWinkle]

Oh wow, can't believe I only just now saw this. Crazy news. I mean, Legends has been in development for so long, I can't believe they're cancelling it. I obviously feel sorry for the studios being closed as well. Max was a great game.

 

[Catvoca]

Man, such a bummer. Feels like it's out of nowhere too, I thought legends was meant to be pretty far along. As a pretty big Fable fan this really sucks.

 

[Ban Puncher]

Are there any British developers left?

Is Jeff Minter's Llamasoft all that remains?






Is the world ready for Hover Bovver 3

Spoiler

D

?

 

[GAMEPROFF]

As I said here, lol...

But he listenes! He is the lord and savior for Xbox because he has a GAF account he uses every half year and you can tweet him shit.

 

[sublimit]

Eh closing down studios and cancelling games regardless of how far in development they are.That's Microsoft for you.

Hope the people affected find new jobs soon.

 

[le.phat]

I see it as a talented team finally freed from the clutches of the suits.

 

[CalamityPixel]

If I was working at Rare I'd be looking for new employment. They probably are. Thus this becomes more a self-fulfilling prophecy than anything else.

You've got to be kidding me. Rare is secure, I can promise you that.

Unlike Lionhead, their last few games sold really well, excusing Kinect Sports Rivals of course. MS are constantly using Rare's IPs now and Rare Replay was one of last years best selling games and the most preordered out of E3. Rare are safe, I'd only worry about them if Sea of Thieves flops.

 

[Boke1879]

from the wire:



they are making clear that they are not "next".

I want Rare to succeed. So I hope the game does well. That said the PR means nothing. If the game craters I really wonder what's in store for Rare next. Their output really hasn't been the best and right now they survive solely on name recognition to the public.

 

[SneakersSO]

Wow, I hope we get some more information on this. We've been hearing (via Xbox Execs) that MS is investing more into games now then ever before, I wonder what were the factors in closing those studios, rather than just reevaluating those projects.

Spoiler

Just got into the beta last week too!

Because what 'games' are to MS, and the purpose that games serve to MS' greater goals, have shifted in recent times. The writing for some big shake ups withing Microsoft & how they both treat & view the Xbox has been there for at least a year now.

The more telling thing about today's news was that Press Play got shuddered. I can understand why Lionhead got closed; they have probably gone over budget on both time & money for awhile now, and were hoping to at least get enough rope to get the base game out & let the microtransactions start making them some immediate returns. But Press Play was a small studio working on some new projects for MS. Brothers was super successful, and there was definitely reason enough to see what else they could churn out.

Everything we have from social media indicates that both of these closures were very sudden, which says this is likely coming from high-up the MS chain. I imagine the only reason Rare was left untouched is the studio name is too prolific to close down. If this really is tighter budgets on the Xbox team, then I don't think these two will be the last before all is said & done.

 

[Tatsumi Oga]

Time for a new quest indeed. I am still excited for what is on the horizon with Quantum Break, Recore, Gears 4, Forza Horizon 2, Crackdown and Scalebound. But Microsoft really need some aces up their sleeve. I mean something big to get people excited again.

To be honest I was excited about Recore last year during E3, but with the lack of any info, no screens, no videos and a delay that we all expected though, I just can't be excited anymore. Inafune's own game has still yet to release and there's no certainty that we'll play Recore at all this year. If it's not at E3.... it might not ever come out.

 

[Samurai G0SU]

Seriously tho.

2018; PC only, Gears, Minecraft, Halo, Killer Instinct and Forza on a steam like initiative. No physical console, no Twisted Pixel, no Team Dakota, no Lift London and no Rare.

I dont think they want to give the living room up that soon.

 

[krang]

To be honest I was excited about Recore last year during E3, but with the lack of any info, no screens, no videos and a delay that we all expected though, I just can't be excited anymore. Inafune's own game has still yet to release and there's no certainty that we'll play Recore at all this year. If it's not at E3.... it might not ever come out.

Built on Unity as well apparently /vom

 

[AncientDiety]

I dont think they want to give the living room up that soon.

The battle for the living room was irrelevant years ago in the console space. That's a view a 1990's ceo would have in this day and age.,

 

[Ushay]

Rare is next. No one really asked for a pirate MMO. And when it fails to make bank MS will toss Rare to the wolves, to concentrate on the slim pickings of IP people actually ask for.

Sea of Thieves looks ace though.

OT - Really shitty news outta no where. Hope the staff land on their feet, it's nice of them to offer them other positions in the company.

Some may hate me for saying this, but Fable Legends was destined to fail. It reeked of poor design and had no real direction behind it. Personally I hope MS use this to create a new RPG IP for their platform.

 

[FaintDeftone]

Huge bummer. I could see Legends getting canned because it wasn't very good from what I played of it, but man closing the whole studio down really sucks. Hopefully the employees get snatched up quickly.

 

[Miles X]

I dont think they want to give the living room up that soon.

They've already lost it though.

 

[DrM]

This one was really quite unexpected.

 

[Aretak]

"are in discussions with employees about the proposed closure of Lionhead Studios in the UK" Sounds like maybe they are looking to see if they can find a way to downsize them enough to be impactful but still viable and/or....maybe MS is giving them option to go indie and go Bungie route maybe?

The "discussions" are just a technicality of UK law. The Eurogamer article mention this:

It revealed the news that Fable Legends - long in beta, even longer in development - was no more. Microsoft also said it was "in discussions with employees about the proposed closure of Lionhead Studios" - a legal requirement for a company over a certain size.

In the UK, a consultation process must take place when this number of redundancies are announced - how long depends on the number of employees affected. But the writing is on the wall.

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

The decision will have already been made if it's gotten this far.

 

[Gtagentleman]

Windows store looking good already.

 

[Tatsumi Oga]

Built on Unity as well apparently /vom

ReCore? Please say Might n09....

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Time for a new quest indeed. I am still excited for what is on the horizon with Quantum Break, Recore, Gears 4, Forza Horizon 2, Crackdown and Scalebound. But Microsoft really need some aces up their sleeve. I mean something big to get people excited again.

It's hard to make a hit franchise. I'm not holding my breath that any of these new franchises and remakes will be good enough to warrant sequels. Such games are the exception, not the standard. I wish MS the best; they'll need all the well-wishes they can get at this point.

Meanwhile I'll go listen to the Kameo soundtrack again and wonder why there's still no sequel.

 

[ironcreed]

To be honest I was excited about Recore last year during E3, but with the lack of any info, no screens, no videos and a delay that we all expected though, I just can't be excited anymore. Inafune's own game has still yet to release and there's no certainty that we'll play Recore at all this year. If it's not at E3.... it might not ever come out.

I would not be shocked. But I am hoping for the best, as it looks like it could be something pretty neat should we ever be graced with some gameplay for it.

At any rate, I love my Xbox One, but things are looking rather weak beyond what we have already known about. Looking forward to what they have in store at E3.

 

[entremet]

The business world is ruthless, man.

I hope those who lost their jobs bounce back.

Sad to hear.

 

[Papacheeks]

Kind of saw this coming once Fable became F2P. Fable Journey and fable legends killed that franchise.

Damn you Microsoft!!!

First Phantom Dust, then Fable, what's next? forza horizon studio?

Jesus, seriously this is what happens when you do a shitty job handling your IP's, and churning out games that have nothing to do with the series.
Also it's what happens when you milk the said franchise, without letting the developers try something new.

Wouldn't surprise me a year or so from here people from i343 start leaving and creating their own studios. Like the ex-halo deve's making that Golem game for PSVR.
Seriously MS get your shit together bite the bullet, cancel the project, eat the cash, and have them work on something other than fucking fable.

I know this is serious straw man territory, but if Microsoft doesn't show UWA plans in how it will benefit PC, along with this closing, and also if QB doesn't sell enough since it's been a financial nightmare from what I'v heard.
This seriously might be the start of slowly trickling end to Xbox for home console. We might get one more dedicated box. ANd after that, they will be all about windows store.

 

[Neuromancer]

Because what 'games' are to MS, and the purpose that games serve to MS' greater goals, have shifted in recent times.

That's what surprises me about this. A F2P Fable game on the Windows 10 store could have attracted people to that storefront, which I assume is also the purpose of Forza Apex.

 

[Doug Heffernan]

Did you miss the part I said they'd have five major studios? It's that or they actually will leave gaming, not sure how you think that's a crazy idea given how things have been last few years.

You pretend as if Microsoft doesn't have great third party relationships with studios. Remedy, Armature, Reagent, etc...

 

[jesu]

Are there any British developers left?

Is Jeff Minter's Llamasoft all that remains?






Is the world ready for Hover Bovver 3

Spoiler

D

?

Rockstar North are still hanging in there.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

Rare is next. No one really asked for a pirate MMO. And when it fails to make bank MS will toss Rare to the wolves, to concentrate on the slim pickings of IP people actually ask for.

That's a weird statement. No one asked for Minecraft before it came out. No asked for a Smash Bros before it came out. No one asked for an open world assassin game set in the crusades before it came out. Not saying SoT is going to be the next big IP or anything, but people not asking for something is not the be all end all barometer on whether or not something is going to be successful. Sometimes they don't know they want it until it's presented to them.

 

[Rösti]

I hope the people affected will be able to find new positions elsewhere soon.

 

[The Scrivener]

Press Play had a couple of great games for platformer lovers. All this talk of MS getting out of the console business doesn't make sense to me. Xbox is a "box", it doesn't sound anywhere near as good as a "brand" I can play on my PC.

 

[Genio88]

That's weird, i mean Fable definitely got bad lately, and the future of this brand wasn't bright at all, though it looked like they would have at least released this Fable Legends as, they've been talking about it a lot and should have been almost done...

 

[PMS341]

It's hard to make a hit franchise. I'm not holding my breath that any of these new franchises and remakes will be good enough to warrant sequels. Such games are the exception, not the standard. I wish MS the best; they'll need all the well-wishes they can get at this point.

Meanwhile I'll go listen to the Kameo soundtrack again and wonder why there's still no sequel.

I'm excited about Scalebound, at least.

Kameo never got a sequel because it wasn't a "Zelda killer" like Microsoft wanted.

 

[platina]

Windows store looking good already.

Damn

 

[MassiveNights]

You pretend as if Microsoft doesn't have great third party relationships with studios. Remedy, Armature, Reagent, etc...

Armature are making a game for PS4 console only. They're more like Insomniac.

 

[krang]

ReCore? Please say Might n09....

So rumour has it:

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1098423

 

[KingJ2002]

Wow... i didn't see this coming. Fable might have needed a reboot after seeing what Legends wasn't bringing to the table. I can imagine that Fable is still an important franchise to Microsoft and they will look to start over when the time comes (with a new team)... but right now it's clear that the focus is on what remedy, 343i, the coalition, turn 10 and rare are bringing to the table.

I see it as a talented team finally freed from the clutches of the suits.

I agree with this sentiment. It may be the death of lionhead but it could also signify the birth of a brand new studio that gets to work on the projects they've been wanting to do for years but were stuck in Fable limbo. I know money can be tight but studios should look to do deals similar to platinum instead of just sell out. let's hope these guys land on their feet. Layoffs are always tough... even with severance.

 

[Lys Skygge]

End of an era RIP Lionhead

 

[mellow]

RIP. I loved Fable 2, never played the original. Hated 3 and haven't checked anything since then from the studio but thanks for the memories.

 

[DarkTom]

What ? Out of nowhere.
I really liked the original Fable but never played another one. Legends seemed close to release, that's weird to cancel it like that.

 

[00ich]

Why are people trying to spin this as a "Mattrick game" when Phil Spencers job has involved directly overseeing Lionhead since 2008?

To be fair: you really don't know. Mattick was in charge, including Quantum Break all decisions are from the old management and you just can't say if the goals / means for Spencer were realistic.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Considering Lionhead are (were) based in Guildford, maybe it's time for Media Molecule to throw open their doors for a bit of rapid expansion and get a couple of dozen Lionhead folk on board.

 

[Elandyll]

I dont think they want to give the living room up that soon.

Unless MS happens to have a TV service like Vue in the pipes, the living room is totally irrelevant to their model at this point (as they transition to a Win10 service Xbox instead of hardware).
Heck, they can release a Windows 10 stick (like Chrome and FireTV) to stream your Win10 phone/ Surface / computer to the living room and they're done and can concentrate on strenghtening Windows Home, Xbox live service, server applications, Cloud apps and Mobile.
My 2cps.

 

[wapplew]

You pretend as if Microsoft doesn't have great third party relationships with studios. Remedy, Armature, Reagent, etc...

Relationship as in Money?

 

[harSon]

Wow, I hope we get some more information on this. We've been hearing (via Xbox Execs) that MS is investing more into games now then ever before, I wonder what were the factors in closing those studios, rather than just reevaluating those projects.

Spoiler

Just got into the beta last week too!

Honestly, it's just a matter of cutting their losses. For a 100+ person studio, look at Lionhead's output since Fable 3. They probably looked at that, as well as the state of Fable Legends and the lack of excitement surrounding the title - and figured that it was simply time to cut ties.

 

[jelly]

It's a long list but I think you can void quite a few of those.

First Party

343 Industries - Halo IP
Turn 10 - Forza IP
Rare - Sea of Theaves, Rare IP
Mojang - Minecraft IP
The Coalition - Gears of War IP
BigPark – Joy Ride series, Kinect Sports: Season Two 'Nothing since 2012'
Microsoft Casual Games Team – Solitaire, Mahjong, Minesweeper, Bingo, Jigsaw
Launchworks - South Park Scott Tenorman's Revenge , South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play. 'Nothing since 2012'

New, Unknown IP

Decisive Games - Beloved Strategy IP 'Age of Empires' ?
Life London - F2P Tablet, Mobile Games, Indie games incubator.
Leap Experience Pioneers

Kinect/Hololens/New experiences

FIT – Holobuilder
(FUN)ction Studios – Microsoft HoloLens and Xbox One
Kids and Lifestyle Entertainment – Xbox Fitness
Good Science Studio – Kinect Adventures, Kinect Fun Labs, Microsoft HoloLens and Xbox One
SOTA - State of The Art Studios – MARS on Microsoft HoloLens
Platform Next Studios – Microsoft HoloLens and Xbox One

Second Party

Remedy - Quantum Break, Alan Wake
Undead Labs - State of Decay
Creative Assembly - Halo Wars 2
Armature Studio – ReCore
Iron Galaxy Studios – Wreckateer, Ms. Splosion Man (iOS, Windows Phone 7 ports), Killer Instinct IP
Vanguard Games – Halo: Spartan Assault
ReAgent Games – Crackdown 3
Playground Games – Forza Horizon IP
Platinum Games – Scalebound
Grounding Inc – Crimson Dragon
Frontier Developments – Kinectimals, Kinect Disneyland Adventures, Zoo Tycoon, ScreamRide
Skybox Labs – Age of Mythology HD Extension, Age of Empires 2 HD , Rise of Nations HD
Ruffian Games – Crackdown 2
Signal Studios – Toy Soldiers, Ascend: Hand of Kul
The Behemoth - Game 4
Saber Interactive – Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
Harmonix – Dance Central series
Certain Affinity – Crimson Alliance, Halo 2 (Map Packs), Halo: Reach (Map Packs), Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (Map Packs), Halo Waypoint


Former and Defunct

Former First Party

Bungie - Halo IP
Twisted Pixel - The Gunstringer, LocoCycle, The Maw, The Adventures of Captain Smiley, 'Splosion Man series

Defunct First Party

Aces Studio – Microsoft Flight Simulator series
Digital Anvil – Brute Force, Freelancer
Ensemble Studios – Age of Empires series, Halo Wars
FASA Studio – MechWarrior series Shadowrun, Crimson Skies
Hired Gun – Halo 2 for Windows Vista
Lionhead Studios – Fable series
Press Play – Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, Tentacles, Knoxville, Kalimba
Microsoft Game Studios Japan – Magatama, Phantom Dust
Microsoft Studios Victoria – Untitled Core Project
Day 1 Studios - Mech Assault 1&2

Former Second Party

Digital Illusions 'DICE' - Rallisport Challenge, Midtown Madness 3
Beep Industries – Voodoo Vince
BioWare – Mass Effect, Jade Empire
Fuel Industries – Tinker

Defunct Second Party

Artoon – Blinx series, Blue Dragon
Bizarre Creations – Project Gotham Racing series
Carbonated Games – Hexic series
feelplus – Lost Odyssey
Game Republic – Every Party
Hudson Soft – Fuzion Frenzy 2
Realtime Worlds – Crackdown
Southend Interactive – Lode Runner 2009, ilomilo