ElBoxyBrown
Banned
He knows people are mad. He knows he probably fucked up somewhere. The only thing he could say is "Fable is not dead" but right now theres not much to say especially if higher ups were involved.
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Lionhead Studios and Press Play closed. Fable legends cancelled.
- Thread starter chadskin
- Start date
He knows people are mad. He knows he probably fucked up somewhere. The only thing he could say is "Fable is not dead" but right now theres not much to say especially if higher ups were involved.
SparksterMeta0
Member
For some reason, I'm not that surprised this game is being canned.
Sad, though, that another studio is closing.
Sad, though, that another studio is closing.
Hes the head of the entire Xbox division. why wouldnt he?
Mass_Pincup
Banned
What do you guys actually think Phil is doing at Xbox? Tweeting all day? lol
DJSebolski
Member
Rare in Next.
Tatsumi Oga
Banned
This is odd though
http://www.xblafans.com/read-what-phil-spencer-said-about-fable-lionhead-just-last-week-86067.html
Of course he wasn't gonna to announce the cancelation right there, but damn.
http://www.xblafans.com/read-what-phil-spencer-said-about-fable-lionhead-just-last-week-86067.html
Of course he wasn't gonna to announce the cancelation right there, but damn.
daTRUballin
Member
I doubt it. People always say this when MS closes a studio, but it never happens.
Probably not by himself but he would probably have been the one to submit the plan for approval. But really it's not like he is an evil horned devil at a certain point you have to look at your product and decide if putting more money into it will achieve anything. Clearly with Fable Legends the answer was no. Sunk costs don't always save a product.
Saying they are a <50 person studio with multiple projects, that's not a bad bet. It's not like 2.5 is a bad thing(Ori/Trine).
element
Member
Satya is great and very much making Microsoft better in every way.
Actually I'd think the final decision was made by Hanno. Look at it from this perspective. You are promoted to a new position and you have a bunch of old baggage to deal with that you see no positives from. Do you rip the bandaid off now and deal with the backlash and start fresh or double down in hope that is works, but if it doesn't then it will all fall on your shoulders?
You have to go all the way back to Phil Harrison to get an idea where Lionhead is today.
DJSebolski
Member
No but something as simple as thank you and address those changes with their customers would make sense.
Cow Goes Moo
Member
DJSebolski going in hard with the fear mongering
jeez lol
Obviously not. His one job is to say yes to everything on twitter.
DJSebolski
Member
If SoT flops that would be two big flops in a row including Kinect Sports Rivals. If Lionhead, who has just as rich a history in game development, can't survive flops then why would Rare?
Holy shite, heard good things about the beta and everything. I wonder if they dropped this on the studios just as suddenly.
Awful.
RIP Lionhead. Another PC-centric company that MS bought, wasted, then cast aside. Shout out to FASA.
Ever seen in a Western, where they take a guy's gear, and tell him to walk into the sunset or be shot down?
Yeah, pretty similar scenario.
Awful.
RIP Lionhead. Another PC-centric company that MS bought, wasted, then cast aside. Shout out to FASA.
Ever seen in a Western, where they take a guy's gear, and tell him to walk into the sunset or be shot down?
Yeah, pretty similar scenario.
If Rare's next title or two under delivers, I could totally see them on the chopping block, which would be heartbreaking really when you look at their legacy. But the reality is they are now a shadow of their former selves.
John Wick
Member
You do know MS are a business first and Foremost?
Satya has to answer to shareholders. Maybe the higher ups weren't happy with the studios?
GusBricker
Member
From that article, it definitely sounds like it was shut down from above Phil Spencer unless he got the latest numbers from the beta and saw that they were terrible or maybe Lionhead asked for another 6 months or something. I mean, wasn't this game suppose to be out like 18 months ago?
The Xtortionist
Member
<3 <3 <3 Shadowrun. They could have gone so far with that concept.
daTRUballin
Member
Rare has been with Microsoft way longer than Lionhead, and they're still alive. Plus Rare has made way more games under MS than Lionhead has, and a lot of them were flops, but they still haven't been shut down.
Also, Rare doesn't just make games. Don't forget that they also made the avatars and they probably worked on the dashboards as well on the 360. I'm pretty sure they also had input during Kinect's development. They help MS when it comes to technical things, not just games.
Not to mention the history and legacy Rare has. I doubt MS will just shut them down.
element
Member
Where do you get that idea? Hanno reports to Phil. Phil reports to Terry Myerson. I don't think Terry would tell Phil to kill a team. My 2 cents.
Deviousx
Member
If you go to Microsoft Studio's official website, and go to their "Studios" section, you can see just how thin MS are at the first-party front. If you break it down, they only really have 5 active first-party development studios:
343 Industries
Mojang
Rare
The Coalition
Turn 10
That is abysmal compared to the likes of Sony and Nintendo who are stacked in terms of development studios.
343 Industries
Mojang
Rare
The Coalition
Turn 10
That is abysmal compared to the likes of Sony and Nintendo who are stacked in terms of development studios.
WordsintheWater
Member
Why are people acting like what Sony did with Stig's game is comparable to what happened here?
An IP that wasn't revealed and we hardly knew anything about was axed, not something that we knew about and was heavily promoted and near completion. Also Sony Santa Monica didn't shut down, Lionhead did. Don't you think they have done enough over the years to get another chance? If they thought Fable Legends wouldn't sell they could have kept them around to make a full fledged Fable game with all the assets they already created,
An IP that wasn't revealed and we hardly knew anything about was axed, not something that we knew about and was heavily promoted and near completion. Also Sony Santa Monica didn't shut down, Lionhead did. Don't you think they have done enough over the years to get another chance? If they thought Fable Legends wouldn't sell they could have kept them around to make a full fledged Fable game with all the assets they already created,
Rare can survive helping MS other devs on engine work and beta testing the latest research shit like Hololens.
Hopefully.
Man, they need to step it up!!!
DJSebolski
Member
I know it's a business and I also know MS will never run out of money. The company I work for pays MS XXX Millions of dollars in licensing (SQL, Server, ETC) a year. That's one company.
I guess if XBOX is not profitable it cuts into that pie but still.
daTRUballin
Member
People have been predicting they would shut Rare down for years, but it has never happened. As for the bolded, I think we should give them a chance to prove themselves this gen. Maybe they've still got it.
Because it's fairly equivalent to this situation. Even though we didn't know about stig's game it was still cancelled after considerable investment and his team was laid off. SSM wasn't shuttered but the team working on the game basically was. This is just much higher profile because it had been revealed to the public years ago.
It's because people like Phil and don't want to place any blame on him. But honestly this is the kind of sad decision that anyone in his position is going to have to make. I mean I doubt he enjoyed doing it but part of his job is to be fiscally responsible.
I think Spencer was part of the decision or it was his to make.
Lionhead had Fable Heroes and Fable Journey flop and Fable Legends has been in development for ages. Wasn't it delayed a couple of times? If the NDA's officially drop I'm sure we'll have a thread with user impressions and it may become clear to folks that, while it had some good fun bits about it, the game was mostly a big misfire even with the number of adjustments they were making.
Yeah, but I think Spencer's guidelines these days are a bit different than they were just a couple of years ago.
I'm a huge fan of Rare, so I don't want to see them go, but I think it's possible.
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
Once again, this is some very uncertain and exciting/worrying times for Microsoft. Things are about to happen.
PIMPBYBLUD
Member
He made the right call. Been in Fable Legends since the beginning of beta and although it made significant progress something felt "off" about it. It got better aster eat builds progressed but it didn't feel like a Fable game IMO. I'm sad to see Lionhead close but understand the business aspect of it. In Phil I Trust...
Rodney McKay
Member
I hope the Fable franchise finds a good developer.
2 was my favorite and the series always felt like it was on the verge of real greatness, but never quite reached it.
2 was my favorite and the series always felt like it was on the verge of real greatness, but never quite reached it.
neurosyphilis
Definitely not an STD, as I'm a pure.
LOL holy shit dude. You're full of it.
Secret Owl
Neo Member
Damn. I'm sorry to those who lost their jobs.
Fable Legends was actually something I was looking forward to checking out. The franchise was wildly mishandled after Fable III (which I still need to play and don't have an opinion on yet.) While I have good memories of playing through the first Fable at a friends house, Fable II was one of my favorite action/adventure games. It had RPG elements for sure, but I feel like those who strictly labeled it as such kind of missed the point. That mentality lead to some disappointment that Fable II wasn't more like Fallout 3, Mass Effect, or Dragon Age: Origins.
I know many people see Fable III as the beginning-of-the-end, but it's possible that the questioning of Fable II's ambiguous RPG-intentions by fans is where Lionhead started to feel an identity crisis with the series. After Fable II, everything was more scattershot.
RIP Milo
Fable Legends was actually something I was looking forward to checking out. The franchise was wildly mishandled after Fable III (which I still need to play and don't have an opinion on yet.) While I have good memories of playing through the first Fable at a friends house, Fable II was one of my favorite action/adventure games. It had RPG elements for sure, but I feel like those who strictly labeled it as such kind of missed the point. That mentality lead to some disappointment that Fable II wasn't more like Fallout 3, Mass Effect, or Dragon Age: Origins.
I know many people see Fable III as the beginning-of-the-end, but it's possible that the questioning of Fable II's ambiguous RPG-intentions by fans is where Lionhead started to feel an identity crisis with the series. After Fable II, everything was more scattershot.
RIP Milo
GusBricker
Member
I dunno, but it just seemed like he was excited for Fable's future, in whatever form it took. Then 1 week later, he closes it? Weird. Real weird.
LukasTaves
Member
The problems the game wasn't close to release at all. The core gameplay was good, but if the content of the beta was all they got they simply didn't have much... The quests were very repetitive, and while it was fun in small doses I could see it getting boring real soon if they didn't shake some of their design decisions up. I think they also failed to keep the game engaging for the villain.
Anyway, the game was already a fun experience, but it clearly needed more time which apparently Ms felt like not giving it.
Both perhaps? Wasn't Lionhead trying to do a online only game in ages? Perhaps using the Fable IP was the only way Ms permitted.
The games as a service aspect of the game was definitely something Ms was pushing too (I guess the industry as a whole actually) so I can see why Ms would invest on this project. Phil did say recently that Lionhead was so focused on Legends, that the entire studio practically restructured itself to become a fable legends studio, so they were obviously very invested in that as well
NippleViking
Banned
Shit... All of those comments by emphasising the backtracking elements of the game make a lot more sense in that light.
Sure could have. Especially with MMO-Lite shooters taking off this gen on consoles.
Isn't it that we simply don't know, it's probably not selling "well"?
Execs are always publicly excited about their products, until they aren't.