Fable Legends cancelled, Lionhead likely closing?

Off-Topic
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Per GameInformer.

Sorry for not posting a link, but it’s on Twitter right now and I’m sure it’s on their site. I just can’t link to either of them.

But yeah… Wow. Didn’t see that one coming. I’ll admit, I wasn’t looking forward to playing it, as it’s not the type of game I tend to be interested in, but I’m still surprised it got cancelled, as it seemed really far in to development.

Sorry to the people that were psyched for this game and to the devs that might be losing their jobs. Hope they all land on their feet!

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I was looking forward to this game but it happens.
Games like Smite are still around, so we still have access to the genre

Anything could be the reason mishandling money decisions internal arguments

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Was this the first game from Lionhead after Peter Molyneux left? I wonder if it just wasn’t coming together the way MS thought it should be and decided to can it. I’ll be curious if MS decides to reboot Fable with another developer. I’d have to think they’d at least give it a try, as it’s one of Microsoft’s better brands.

Then again, I thought that about MechAssault, Rallisport Challenge, Crimson Skies, Lost Odyssey and several games or franchises that they seemingly couldn’t possibly abandon because of how great they were.

That’s not a dig it MS. They seem to have a small number of games that they want as franchises and then they tend to go off and try a new partnership here, a new game there, etc. Maybe they think that after three Fable games and this (unfortunately) failed project, that they’ll just put it on the shelf for a while. Hope not, but we’ll see.

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Loved the Fable legends beta, got fed up with the long time investments on games like fallout, etc. So playing a little Fable Legends and KI here and there was my main gaming entertainment for the past several months.

They added a lot of new things every week or 2 to the beta and it was coming along nicely. It looked beautiful, the fighting was way more solid then games like Smite which didnt keep my attention and it had nice story elements. And they were so close to an open beta and already talking about the new stuff like heroes they were already working on.

Basically it sucks and microsoft might have lost me as a customer (and I’m not usually one for the dramatic, but this annoys me no end). I might keep my xbox one for KI, love to support IG, but for now I’m using ebay to trade my games and not spending more money on them. I need to see what they come up with next.

Fable was exactly the sort of game that filled a unique niche. They also dont have a lot of jrpg’s and except for Halo (which lost me with no splitscreen, havent played through singleplayer, always used to do that with a friend on the couch), most shooters are multiplatform. Gears is a third person game as is Quantum Break but besides that, what genre is the Xbox offering that others dont. Even in the fighting game genre we have precious little choice.

I’m a third generation xbox owner and this just all rubs me the wrong way, sorry for the long rant. Mostly just sad :pensive:

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Really? Didn’t they start selling the cross-play concept with Legends? Pretty sad if its true, been hearing about it for ages and I can’t imagine how it must feel to be one of the people working on the game for so long for nothing.

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I get the same feeling, but I truly think it is the wrong strategy…looking at nintendo and Sony, they have so many big franchises. Microsoft has been hearing people complain about not having as many exclusives as them for years, and what do they do? They get rid of one of their most well known ones, and they are not just cancelling the game, they are most likely taking apart Lionhead aswell

Titanfall and Tomb Raider would be great franchises, but they arent, well not microsofts anyways.

Mass effect was great, they could have bought the studio, but let EA get away with it…I dont know, just kinda losing my faith in Microsoft…

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Yes, and one of the first games to really use DX10 aswell if I remember correctly.

I’m just really, really hoping for a big enough ■■■■■■■■■ that microsoft changes their mind about Fable Legends. But I doubt it. How would I best go about contacting them for filing a complaint.

And personally it didnt bother me that Xbox loses exclusives to PC, I could see the benefits from that. However a lot of people dont share my sentiment on it, and now with the Fable legends game, they are really getting some bad publicity…

So WTF is Microsoft doing?

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I agree about it being the wrong strategy. Well, maybe it’s a strategy that works for them, but as a fan of a lot of their games throughout the years, I want more of those experiences along with new experiences.

The counter argument always seems to be “well, you can’t have both. They can’t turn everything in to a franchise or else they wouldn’t be able to do enough new games.” I’m not asking for everything, but a better balance would be appreciated.

I hate to sound like I’m whining by saying “I want more,” but can you blame me?

To me, knowing that I’m almost assuredly not going to get a Lost Odyssey sequel still burns. Same goes with Crimson Skies, MechAssault, Ralisport Challenge, Blue Dragon, Blood Wake, Amped, Alan Wake, etc. They almost assuredly lost any chance for exclusivity (or even sequels) for Jade Empire or KOTOR and actually lost exclusivity on Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive.

I mean, do we realistically think that we’ll get Sunset Overdrive 2? Will Dead Rising be console exclusive for MS? Will we see a new, better Ryse 2? Would they try and make Crimson Dragon in to their Panzer Dragoon franchise?

How about looking to the future… Do we really think we’ll get Quantum Break 2 on Xbox One? How about Scalebound or ReCore? I could maybe see Ori 2, but that’s by no means a lock either.

Outside of Halo, Gears, and Forza, what actual “franchises” are MS known for now? I used to include Dance Central in that, but with Kinect all but jettisoned, I’d say that’s probably a dead franchise. I’m starting to lean that way with Fable as well.

Phil Spencer said last year that MS would really start to look at their old catalog and that’s how a new Phantom Dust came about… Only to be cancelled.

That’s fine. If the game wasn’t coming together or they misjudged the market for it, then so be it. But while I’ve had some good experiences with Xbox One so far, this franchise issue is always in the back of my mind because I want to play new iterations of some of MS’ awesome franchises and I doubt I’ll be able to. I also tend to wonder if the game I’m playing and really enjoying at the moment will see a sequel, or if this is it.

Neither of those are good feelings to have as someone that owns a console.

3 Likes
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Well… ****.
I wasn’t looking forward to it & I wasn’t going to play it. But the game sure looked pretty!

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Maybe MS can hire another studio to pick up where Lionhead left off. Or is that totally out of the question?

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I tend to doubt it. I mean, I suppose the game could resurface with a different developer, but given how much negative press the game got and the fact that they actually went as far as to announce its cancellation, I wouldn’t get your hopes up.

Who knows though… Stranger things have happened!

I’m really curious to see what MS will be showing at E3 this year. Quantum Break will have already come out and that’s one of, if not the biggest bullet in their chamber for this year along with Gears.

So what will be seeing? Halo Wars, Gears 4, Sea of Thieves, ReCore, Scalebound, Crackdown 3 and probably Forza Horizon 3 all seem like safe bets. But after that?

If they simply line up a bunch of multiplatform titles, I’ll be extremely disappointed. I honestly don’t want to see any multiplatform games. I don’t care if they got exclusive DLC or DLC first or any of that.

If anything, just put up a nice big list on one of the screens and just leave it up there and say “these are some of the great multiplatform games that are coming to Xbox One this year and we couldn’t be more excited.” But then segue in to “but we know our fans want to see exclusive content and we’ve got some great announcements for you today. In fact, that’s the sole purpose of our show.”

Personally, I want to see some franchises return. I don’t even care if they’re XBL only. If KI can be an amazing game without having a AAA budget, then I’d love to see MS try that same formula with some other franchises in their back catalog. Mind you, I said some. Not one, but not a lot.

Perhaps give Tao Feng or Kakuto Chojin the KI treatment? Maybe bring back Blood Wake or MechAssault this way as well?

Now, I’d still love to see a Conker game or a Banjo game or something like that get the 4 star treatment. I’d also love to see a new studio at Turn 10 announce that they’re bringing back Rallisport Challenge under the name Forza: Rallisport. I’d also love to see MS turn Crimson Skies in to a sort of Uncharted / Tomb Raider with a ton of flying that involves exploring and dogfighting thrown in to the mix.

In a perfect world, they’d announce the purchase of a beleaguered publisher like Capcom or Sega, but I know that won’t happen. At the very least though, it’d be amazing if they could announce some sort of partnership and a small slew of titles in development, covering multiple genres that MS is currently deficient in (namely JRPGs and fighting games).

But yeah, I think this will be a pivotal year for MS. They have a few titles out there that are known to be arriving in 2016, but none of them, outside of perhaps Gears, really scream “killer app” and none of them would be surprises, of course. So I’ll be curious to see what they can really bring to the table.

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I’m devastated by the news about Lionhead being disbanded, couldn’t really care about Fable Legends since I was in the beta and quite frankly hated it. I really would like to know why MS are closing Lionhead though?

Really hope they get other jobs as that is the worst thing about this whole story

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Well, they said that Lionhead is “likely” to be closed, I believe. So hopefully that’s not the case.

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Looks like Fable: Legends actually became a Legend

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Man, what the hell happened!? I know there have been the usual crowd of ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ on Lionhead for not making another action RPG, but Legends looked (admittedly from a distance) like a cool, focused concept that was shaping up into something special, and I was considering jumping in when it either hit open beta or launched.

Oh well. Nothing for it but to wait for the inevitable insider leak(s).

It’s kinda like any E3 really, they either have new stuff to unveil or they don’t. I’m not sure how the status of Fable Legends changes that.

They’re entering discussions as per requirements imposed by UK law. I doubt there’s truly a chance that they won’t end up disbanding.

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I am actually shocked by this news. I was really psyched for this game since the concept was announced - and I never had any interest in the Fable universe. But the concept for this seemed great, and even when they announced it would be free to play that made sense to me. I tried to get in the beta and couldn’t, but my brother got in just last week. He liked it - although he thought it might turn into a grind.

I hate to be a backseat driver, or a critic because I don’t know how MS came to this decision. But it’s really hard not to wonder what the heck they are thinking. This game was a cross play mascot for them. And they don’t have anything first party in this space. I have Smite and I have zero interest in it. It’s a MOBA through and through and Legends was a different animal altogether.

I actually logged in to look for a thread on this or post one. One of the messages that this reinforces, to me, is just how tenuous the life of any non-AAA blockbuster franchise is with MS. If anyone thinks that the future of KI hasn’t been one meeting away from exactly this same treatment on more than one occasion since the original E3 announcement you are kidding yourselves.

[quote=“Dragonps, post:12, topic:5716”]
couldn’t really care about Fable Legends since I was in the beta and quite frankly hated it. I really would like to know why MS are closing Lionhead though
[/quote] How can you post these two sentences right next to each other and not realize what you are saying? What good is a studio if their one and only project is a dud? I think people need to wake up and start realizing that, although you don’t have to like everything, slagging something like this isn’t helpful to keeping the development house open.

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I completely agree.

The sad thing is, Fable Legends really was an AAA game, from the graphics to the gameplay to the lovingly created fantasy world (Still have to find a more beautiful fantasy world in a game then Albion from Fable). The balancing was almost perfect aswell and mostly they were just adding smaller things and optimising.

the game is perfectly playable, only the loadtimes were still a little long (mostly on startup). How could you basically throw away a game that was almost fully finished? They were already working on newer characters in the background to add in the future. The soundtrack is on Amazon already I believe and there are art books etc…

The thing I’m most sad about (apart from the lionhead employees) is that I really loved the game and when they take it offline, its really gone, all the beautifull levels and the great and diverse characters. There isnt a disc version to be bought, its like Konami with their PT playable teaser and then canceling the game and taking PT offline aswell…(at least there downloaded means you got to keep it).

Still feeling a lot of negativity towards Microsoft about it (or at least the people responsible there). And I really intent to not give Microsoft any money (except season3) for the foreseeable future untill they show their gameplan, because they are really messing up this generation. I had high hopes Phill Spencer was going to turn it around after silly Dan Matricks TV TV TV Xbox, but I’m afraid that might have been misguided. They better not ■■■■■ up KI…

Tl, dr: stupid Microsoft!

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couldn’t agree more with most of this!!! im SO SO SO upset by this!!!

couldn’t really care about Fable Legends since I was in the beta and quite frankly hated it

this bit i dont get! i liked the beta it was fresh and different. It just needed to be finished and played. i personally think it would have caught on

devastated! i spent £40 on this beta to support the dev and now we will NEVER get this game.

its hideous!

Xbox is becoming one note! This E3 ill be watching sony to see if they are FINALLY ready to wake up…

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They did say people who spend money on the beta would be refunded.

I dont understand it from a business perspective though, it would launch on pc and Xbox, its free to play, anyone who was even slightly interested would at least try it out, and I am really convinced it would have been succesfull. The game was almost ready so the costs going forward wouldnt be that high either. Now they have to refund a lot of people too…

And what happens with what is already made? Its just painfull thinking about it being thrown away just like that…

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