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Sweeping Changes At Microsoft Studios Kill Lionhead Studios and Fable (betanews.com)

Posted by timothy on from the schumpeterian-growth dept.

Mark Wilson writes: Microsoft has announced sweeping changes at Microsoft Studios, affecting development teams in the UK and Denmark. In sad news for gamers, development of Fable Legends has been brought to an end. The Fable series is one that has suffered numerous setbacks and delays over the years, but this is the biggest blow yet. More than this, the team behind Fable — Lionhead Studios — is at risk of closure, and Microsoft is in talks with employees about this. General Manager of Microsoft Studios Europe, Hanno Lemke, also announced that Press Play Studios in Denmark will close, leading to the end of development on Project Knoxville.

4 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Re:notice we didnt say 'meaningful' changes by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    and the only thing using the microsoft cloud is the colocational datacenter racks that hold it up.

    Of everything you wrote, this is the only point I'd differ on. The Azure cloud stuff has actually been pretty successful, to the point where they can barely meet demand. (Personally I don't see why, because AWS seems to be a better platform in nearly every way.)

    So Azure has actually been a money-maker so far, but other than that everything you said was spot-on.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  2. Re:Nothing of Value was Lost by Kobun · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Agreed. Lionhead was full of disappointment for me. Black & White, which has performance degradation bugs that make the game unplayable on a 10-years-later modern PC. Fable 3, with game-ending bugs (shooting range, anyone?) that were never fixed. The Fable 2 PC port that never came. Either Black & White, with their suicidally stupid AI.

    I would feel differently if the games were such that I could go back and play them today with fond nostalgia, but their never-addressed quality issues make the whole endeavor too much of an unfun hassle.

  3. Re:I hope Peter Molyneux never works again by Kobun · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sure, Molyneux, overpromises, and doesn't understand "scope" but he did give us the god-genre and gems such as with Populous, Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper, Magic Carpet.

    I feel like this undersells how great the team at Bullfrog was. For me, Molyneux always felt similar to John Romero - started off as part of a great team, but was significantly less impressive when put in the primary lead position.

  4. Way too late by poisonborz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I never understood why anyone thought they were an iconic studio. The only game they ever delivered in the scale and originality they promised was Black & White. Fable, while good, was already showing cracks (compared to what Molyneux promised) and the only other original IP was The Movies, which - while also being an interesting concept - was a costly flop. That's all. Their last decade was basically spilling out Fable sequels in worsening quality, parallel of how Molyneux became more and more depressed and actually mad. After (and actually before) he left, there wasn't a strong, visionary lead there. Microsoft was actually merciful to keep them around this long.