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Forums - Microsoft - Lionhead Shutting Down. Fable Legends Cancelled.

Mr Puggsly on 07 March 2016
WolfpackN64 said:
First Microsoft closed Ensemble, now they close Lionhead. 2 of my favorite studios. WHY!!! Microsoft, you incompetent a*holes!!!

Well MS doesent need a studio dedicated to Age of Empires and other RTS games. Halo Wars for example is being developed by a 3rd party.

The Lionhead shut down might be issues with that studio. Little output and Fable Legends wasnt great. Maybe they will keep some key people for Fable 4.



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HoloDust on 07 March 2016
JRPGfan said:
LivingMetal said:
Doesn't make sense. Just doesn't.

It does if you dont care about Hardware sales.

Maybe MS dont want to make a Xbox Two, so they dont need a risky investment in a Fable 4 exclusive for a console they dont plan to make.

You play it safe and keep the bigger franchises (halo,gears,forza) that make you money, and shut everything else down.

Fable, despite weaker 3rd entry, was on the upward sales curve - and then they started killing it for no apparent reason with Kinect, spin-off and this latest stuff.

I don't think it makes sense for them to kill Fable, however., killing developer who handled it so far maybe does.



Mr Puggsly on 07 March 2016
exdeath said:

Sigh...

Shooter shooter shooter shooter shooter shooter shooter shooter shooter.

Figures the one non shooter gets canned.

 

Why don't they cancel Halo or GoW instead.

Did you play the not shooter games MS published?

This isnt the end of Fable. In fact, this might be an opportunity to put it in better hands.



Recently Completed: 
River City: Rival Showdown for 3DS (3/5) - River City: Tokyo Rumble for 3DS (4/5) - Zelda: BotW for Wii U (5/5) - Zelda: BotW for Switch (5/5) - Zelda: Link's Awakening for Switch (4/5) - Rage 2 for X1X (4/5) - Rage for 360 (3/5) - Streets of Rage 4 for X1/PC (4/5) - Gears 5 for X1X (5/5) - Mortal Kombat 11 for X1X (5/5) - Doom 64 for N64 (emulator) (3/5) - Crackdown 3 for X1S/X1X (4/5) - Infinity Blade III - for iPad 4 (3/5) - Infinity Blade II - for iPad 4 (4/5) - Infinity Blade - for iPad 4 (4/5) - Wolfenstein: The Old Blood for X1 (3/5) - Assassin's Creed: Origins for X1 (3/5) - Uncharted: Lost Legacy for PS4 (4/5) - EA UFC 3 for X1 (4/5) - Doom for X1 (4/5) - Titanfall 2 for X1 (4/5) - Super Mario 3D World for Wii U (4/5) - South Park: The Stick of Truth for X1 BC (4/5) - Call of Duty: WWII for X1 (4/5) -Wolfenstein II for X1 - (4/5) - Dead or Alive: Dimensions for 3DS (4/5) - Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite for X1 (3/5) - Halo Wars 2 for X1/PC (4/5) - Halo Wars: DE for X1 (4/5) - Tekken 7 for X1 (4/5) - Injustice 2 for X1 (4/5) - Yakuza 5 for PS3 (3/5) - Battlefield 1 (Campaign) for X1 (3/5) - Assassin's Creed: Syndicate for X1 (4/5) - Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare for X1 (4/5) - Call of Duty: MW Remastered for X1 (4/5) - Donkey Kong Country Returns for 3DS (4/5) - Forza Horizon 3 for X1 (5/5)

teigaga on 07 March 2016

Wtf!?

I mean I have no idea why they went for Fable Legends instead of Fable 4 but the game seems pretty far along and the team have otherwise been profitable with Fable 1-3.

This is really sad :(



Mr Puggsly on 07 March 2016
Bandorr said:
Reminds me of that other game.. phantom dust?

Announced. Delayed, delayed.. cancelled.

Yeah, I guess that makes MS the first company to cancel games.



Recently Completed: 
River City: Rival Showdown for 3DS (3/5) - River City: Tokyo Rumble for 3DS (4/5) - Zelda: BotW for Wii U (5/5) - Zelda: BotW for Switch (5/5) - Zelda: Link's Awakening for Switch (4/5) - Rage 2 for X1X (4/5) - Rage for 360 (3/5) - Streets of Rage 4 for X1/PC (4/5) - Gears 5 for X1X (5/5) - Mortal Kombat 11 for X1X (5/5) - Doom 64 for N64 (emulator) (3/5) - Crackdown 3 for X1S/X1X (4/5) - Infinity Blade III - for iPad 4 (3/5) - Infinity Blade II - for iPad 4 (4/5) - Infinity Blade - for iPad 4 (4/5) - Wolfenstein: The Old Blood for X1 (3/5) - Assassin's Creed: Origins for X1 (3/5) - Uncharted: Lost Legacy for PS4 (4/5) - EA UFC 3 for X1 (4/5) - Doom for X1 (4/5) - Titanfall 2 for X1 (4/5) - Super Mario 3D World for Wii U (4/5) - South Park: The Stick of Truth for X1 BC (4/5) - Call of Duty: WWII for X1 (4/5) -Wolfenstein II for X1 - (4/5) - Dead or Alive: Dimensions for 3DS (4/5) - Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite for X1 (3/5) - Halo Wars 2 for X1/PC (4/5) - Halo Wars: DE for X1 (4/5) - Tekken 7 for X1 (4/5) - Injustice 2 for X1 (4/5) - Yakuza 5 for PS3 (3/5) - Battlefield 1 (Campaign) for X1 (3/5) - Assassin's Creed: Syndicate for X1 (4/5) - Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare for X1 (4/5) - Call of Duty: MW Remastered for X1 (4/5) - Donkey Kong Country Returns for 3DS (4/5) - Forza Horizon 3 for X1 (5/5)

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MikeRox on 07 March 2016
Random_Matt said:
MikeRox said:

 

Lol wah wah Tories. Blindly ignorant to the damage any other party has done and would be currently doing now if they were in power.

 

Are the Tories to blame for the Danish studio closure also? What about all the great British industry icons destroyed in the 00s such as Eidos/Core etc?

 

This is awful for the staff involved. But seems to be more related to MS's repositioning of Xbox than a political party you dislike.

LOL, a funny pun hits a nerve. Do you take everything seriously?

Not really a pun is it? Just moronic nonsense.



RIP Dad 25/11/51 - 13/12/13. You will be missed but never forgotten.

Xenostar on 07 March 2016
KingofTrolls said:
poklane said:

Another ~130 people losing their jobs, sad times :(

Really ? Do u know how many people lost jobs in lets say oil industry ? Thousands.

IT guyz will find new job rather quickly, dont be worry.

I think it is a signal of our times - UK employess have one of the highest salaries in the world, its really hard to maintain them, even for MS.

Hahaha where you get this bullshit! uk employees in the games industry on average earn less than half of there American counterparts, the U.K. Is a talented and cheap labour force for MS. 



pokoko on 07 March 2016

This makes me wonder if Microsoft is not happy with the model of owning semi-autonomous studios with pre-established leadership and management conventions. Perhaps they've become enamored with building their own studios that are firmly under the thumb of Microsoft Studios.

They might be thinking that if you're dealing with a studio that largely decides its own projects, why own them at all? Why not just buy the rights to the project rather than the studio itself? That way, if you have a hit, you're in great shape, but if it's a flop, you can just walk away from it. Furthermore, if you're skeptical of that studio's next project, you can decline to support it with zero financial fallout.

Basically, we might be seeing more Sunset Overdrives and less Fables. Which is to say, third party studios with first party projects contracted on an individual basis.

Microsoft seemed to be mimicking Sony's Worldwide Studios at the start of this generation but, in all honesty, Microsoft isn't really "all-in" when it comes to console gaming the way Sony is with Playstation. It's never going to be more than a side-business for them. Sony's gaming software model is all about building up the Playstation brand, with losses seen as acceptable. I think Microsoft's top management wants to take a step back from that approach and maximize their earnings potential with each and every project, which is why most games are going to Windows.

We might be looking at the first stages of a shifting landscape in the gaming industry. This is interesting.



poklane on 07 March 2016

BigPark (Kinect games, Joy Ride Turbo), [FUN]ction Studios (HoloLens and XB1), Good Science (Kinect games, HoloLens and XB1), LXP (HoloLens), Project Spark (XB1 & PC game) and SOTA (HoloLens) have also been removed from www.microsoftstudios.com

Looks like there's some major restructuring at Microsoft Studios. And before someone thinks it, no I'm not trying to imply that all studios I've listed above have closed or are closing. However I'm curious why BigPark and Project Spark are gone.



Scoobes on 07 March 2016
OneKartVita said:
Chazore said:

They killed Ensemble studios a while back, though it's still surprising to see them shutting down yet another studio, especially one they touted DX 12 with.

Shutting Ensemble down was bad.  Was the studio really losing them money or were they just not making enough? 

Yes and no. The studio made profitable games, however, they had an online game in the works for which they hired a load of staff which then got cancelled. However, they kept the extra staff for their remaining development projects (AoE III and Halo Wars) but that also meant disproportionately higher costs for games in a genre that wasn't popular on consoles. As MS' priority at the time was 360, they shut the studio down. It was still a shock to the people at the studio as all their games had been successful and profitable.

OT: This is quite a surprise. Fable Legends was in beta after years of investment. When the game is almost ready to start making a return they decide to completely remove the developers from the equation?! Why not wait until the games actually out and they only need to run maintenance and support? It makes no sense to me. 

Hopefully the developers find work quickly. I imagine there will be a fair few studios looking to recruit from the ex-Lionhead talent pool. 




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