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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Ex Lionhead Producer: Microsoft the “Destroyer” of 1st Party Studio

Chazore on 08 March 2016
Chris Hu said:
Pemalite said:

You don't know that.
They were having financial troubles sure, but they could have also found investment elsewhere.

For all we know they might have made the next big AAA 50+ million selling franchise if they were allowed to deviate from Fable, it's not like their games weren't fun.

EA is pretty quick to disbanned studios if the game doesn't sell well enough 38 Studios is probably the prime example for that.  MS and EA isn't the only publisher that dropped Lionhead Studios though, Activision also dropped then since they made two The Movies titles for them which isn't that much of a surprise since Activison is also pretty quick to disband developers.

Don't forget about when EA shut down Maxis after a year following the Sim City disaster. After Deadpool not selling so well back when it was originally released on last gen, we haven't really heard anything from High Moon studios apart from a last gen COD port and that was two years ago.



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Pemalite on 08 March 2016
Chris Hu said:
Pemalite said:

You don't know that.
They were having financial troubles sure, but they could have also found investment elsewhere.

For all we know they might have made the next big AAA 50+ million selling franchise if they were allowed to deviate from Fable, it's not like their games weren't fun.

EA is pretty quick to disbanned studios if the game doesn't sell well enough 38 Studios is probably the prime example for that.  MS and EA isn't the only publisher that dropped Lionhead Studios though, Activision also dropped then since they made two The Movies titles for them which isn't that much of a surprise since Activison is also pretty quick to disband developers.

Pretty sure EA couldn't have disbanded lionhead as they never owned the studio, they had a relationship similar to Crytek, they would have just ceased being their publisher and offering them financial support, again that could have been found elsewhere... Which  just happened to be Microsoft's outright purchase so they could enter the console market with ample first party studios.

 

This is a big loss, just like any other notable developer making games that people enjoy, not all developers hit it big on their first release, it took Bungie a few franchises to bring us Halo.



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KazumaKiryu on 08 March 2016

i understand the Lionhead Producer, that sucks.
the time is change.. its time for a PS4 now.

Goodbye Lionhead (and the other 5 games-studios by microsoft)



JRPGfan on 08 March 2016

"Microsoft the “Destroyer” of 1st Party Studio"

Jeez Shots fired.
I really hope Rare dont end up like this though, just outta the blue and shut down.



tiffac on 08 March 2016



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Ruler on 08 March 2016
Chazore said:
Ruler said:
in general it feels like Microsoft completely lost its way lately

Wouldn't you if you entered a market for 3 generations, won none of them, lost all sorts of deals and brands along the way as well as most of the userbase you tried to create on both PC and consoles?, I'd probably have gone stark mental by now if I was still there or still running the company because so far over the years they just can't seem to keep winning at something, it's one win and 5 losses.

If I won 1 match on Heroes of the Storm and lost 5-10 times I'd quit playing the game for a while as it's not worth putting in even more effort for more to lose, I'd rather take my chances when I know I have the chance to win, I'd rather cut my losses if I'm going to lose, same with MS trying to cut off bits and pieces that aren't making them big money for a mega corp, that's usually what mega corps end up doing over time in the end anwyay (happened with Sony when they were losing in other markets and decided to shave off those that didn't bring in the big money or lost them cash).

Sony sold off Sony Online for example who made everquest, no one had to lose his her job. They handle things completley different. Its MS who wants to keep the Fable IP so they rather fire everyone if they dont bring the results instead give it to another company, me thinks



Why i left PC gaming

 

(2015) Question for PS4 owners: if the situation would be reverse? would you still play on PS4?

(2015) The "I don't care PS4 is the most powerful console" thread

Jigsawx1 on 08 March 2016

its good to close the studios if they dont do a good job over years and years, so you can open ne studios with more ideas and new franchises and i dont think they will be hungry or something else



Mr Puggsly on 08 March 2016
think-man said:
Well what he says is true, and mark my word there will be more. I hope Nintendo or Sony pick up some of these guys

Looking at Fable Anniversary, Fable Heroes, and Fable Legends... I'm not sure how much talent was there.

Perhaps MS move the notable talent to other studios. The other guys can start another studio or something. MS has worked for employees of their defunct studios by the way. Some studios have simply existed to work with MS, such as Playground Games (Forza Horizon) and ReAgent (Crackdown).



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AsGryffynn on 08 March 2016
JRPGfan said:
"Microsoft the “Destroyer” of 1st Party Studio"

Jeez Shots fired.
I really hope Rare dont end up like this though, just outta the blue and shut down.

Reports say they just received a fat new paycheck... 

It's starting to sound that they axed FL in favor of SoT... 



Chris Hu on 09 March 2016
Pemalite said:
Chris Hu said:

EA is pretty quick to disbanned studios if the game doesn't sell well enough 38 Studios is probably the prime example for that.  MS and EA isn't the only publisher that dropped Lionhead Studios though, Activision also dropped then since they made two The Movies titles for them which isn't that much of a surprise since Activison is also pretty quick to disband developers.

Pretty sure EA couldn't have disbanded lionhead as they never owned the studio, they had a relationship similar to Crytek, they would have just ceased being their publisher and offering them financial support, again that could have been found elsewhere... Which  just happened to be Microsoft's outright purchase so they could enter the console market with ample first party studios.

 

This is a big loss, just like any other notable developer making games that people enjoy, not all developers hit it big on their first release, it took Bungie a few franchises to bring us Halo.

Nope its not really a big loss since the last good game they made is Fable II.  Team Bondi being dismantled after just one game is a much bigger loss L.A. Noire sold better then any game ever published by Lionhead Studios.