This was a drastic shift in direction for Lionhead, as they had no previous experience with the ongoing support, monetisation, and player retention required for "games as a service".Īccording to gaming news site Kotaku, Fable Legends began to fall apart due to conflicting interests from the Microsoft corporate divisions. As a result, Lionhead instead ended up working on what would become Fable Legends. Īlso in 2012, Lionhead pitched a proposal to Microsoft for an "expansive single-player game that built on the series’ heritage, set in a sprawling London-like city", but were informed that "you will not be given permission to make Fable 4, or something that is a shadow Fable 4" due to the shifting focus of Microsoft Studios Europe to "games as a service" under new director Phil Harrison. Gary Carr filled the role of Creative Director. Lionhead co-founder Mark Webley took over as interim head of the studio until the appointment of John Needham to that position in April 2013. On 7 March 2012, Peter Molyneux announced he was leaving Lionhead to work at an independent developer called 22Cans. Some of its features made their way into Fable: The Journey.
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In addition to the Fable series, the company began work on the Kinect game Milo & Kate, although this game was eventually canned by Microsoft. Since the acquisition and the shift in priority to a focus on Microsoft gaming platforms, Lionhead Studios achieved significant success with the creation of many successful video games, including the Fable series, which has since risen to be one of the highest selling RPG franchises in the market today. In April of 2006, this bid was won by Microsoft Game Studios, over their primary opposition of Ubisoft. The company went on to develop The Movies, and Black & White 2, but poor sales figures and delays in their production left Lionhead in a vulnerable financial state and primed for a takeover bid. Following its release, the company got to work on a number of other projects, and signed on a couple of "satellite studios", one of which was Big Blue Box, developers of the original Fable, which fully merged with Lionhead shortly before Fable was released. The first game they created was the god game Black & White. Named after producer Mark Webley's former hamster, Lionhead was founded as a breakaway from Bullfrog Productions, also founded by Peter Molyneux. The studio was shuttered a few weeks later, on April 29th.
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On March 7th 2016, Microsoft announced that they were in talks with employees about the proposed closure of Lionhead Studios. Lionhead Studios was a video game development company that was established in the United Kingdom in 1997 by Peter Molyneux. Thank you for your support - you are all Legends!" - Lionhead, on the termination of Fable Legends " All stories have to end eventually, but the memories of Heroic triumphs and Villainous plots will last forever.