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

cesarmgc

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cesarmgc on 07 March 2016

Only for Micro$oft!!

In Sony We Trust!

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Mike321 on 07 March 2016

Microsoft does have a bad record when it comes to 1st party studios.

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Chris Hu on 07 March 2016

Uabit said:

KiigelHeart said:
How many have they destroyed so far to earn that title?

Rare, Lionhead and Bungie which wasn't first but they left half of it on 343 destroying 343 on the process too. Also i don't remember who made PGR but those aren't made anymore...

Bizzare Creations (developers of PGR) got destroyed when they joined Activision and Blur and James Bond 007: Blood Stone bombed. Anyway MS actually helped out a lot of the people that worked for Bizzare since a lot of them work for Playground Games now.

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Bryank75 on 07 March 2016

Lafiel said:

elektranine said:

A restructure is not something you do suddenly and make rash decisions on. Just the other day the devs were talking about how good things were going. They cancelled a basically complete game and closed two studios all on the same day. That's a very sudden decision and nothing really points to a restructure.

Very rarely is an announced game cancelled. I can't remember the last time that has happened.

I remember several, like Getaway 3, 8 Days or Agent, but none of those projects was nearly as advanced as Fable Legends, which seemed ready for release this or next quarter.

The sudden closures and weird messaging the last days look more like a "refocus" than a "restructure" in my opinion, but we'll see.

Agent is in active development.

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Mr Puggsly on 07 March 2016

elektranine said:A restructure is not something you do suddenly and make rash decisions on. Just the other day the devs were talking about how good things were going. They cancelled a basically complete game and closed two studios all on the same day. That's a very sudden decision and nothing really points to a restructure.

Very rarely is an announceddoome cancelled. I can't remember the last time that has happened.

Fable Legends was probably near completion but it wasnt very good. Had the quality been better this might be a different story. It wasnt going to review well vased on the beta.

I genuinely understand why Lion Head had to go. But the other studio Im not sure about.

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Mr Puggsly on 07 March 2016

Chris Hu said:

Uabit said:

Rare, Lionhead and Bungie which wasn't first but they left half of it on 343 destroying 343 on the process too. Also i don't remember who made PGR but those aren't made anymore...

Bizzare Creations (developers of PGR) got destroyed when they joined Activision and Blur and James Bond 007: Blood Stone bombed. Anyway MS actually helped out a lot of the people that worked for Bizzare since a lot of them work for Playground Games now.

Its funny, Bizarre Creations were bitter at MS for focusing on Forza. Now former employees make great Forza games.

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Mr Puggsly on 07 March 2016

Azerth said:
Yeah because it makes complete business sense to jeep a studio who probably hasnt made a profit since fable 2

You should check the sales of Fable 3.

Fable Anniversary probably had a small budget. I fa not polished on 360. PC users seem happy with it.

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AsGryffynn on 07 March 2016

CGI-Quality said:

elektranine said:
Well the statement is basically true, MS doesn't have any productive 1st party studios that have lasted longer than a few years. They seem to not know how to not overhype games and then blame the devs when it doesn't work out.

What about Forza? Turn 10 seems to be doing a fanstastic job of maintaining quality while pumping those titles out. The Lionhead drop may be a big blow, but I'm not ready to write them off just yet. Perhaps the X1 is their last console. Perhaps not. All of this points me in the direction of restructure, not impending doom.

I am thinking they are trying to source all the good ones from the studios and then nuke them to create a new studio with only luminaries, like they did with 343, but see how that played out...