Breaking: Fable Legends cancelled, Lionhead and Press Play studio closed

It was an interesting concept and broke the mold of the traditional RPG. If anything it could have been a stepping stone for something great. Shame it'll never see the light of day.

@NathanDrakeSwag: The consolidation at Sony Santa Monica, The employees at ND, and a few others.

@flyincloud1116:

For anyone not to care about someone life is a idiot and you trying to justify hum doesn't make you much better dude. Anyone that can't look past their fanboy vision for 1 second to see how things like that affect people is just childish, plain and simple.

The gaming industry is a cutthroat business.

Da fuq? what about all the employees? f**k MS there is nothing more annoying than having no notice and getting laid off, i was laid off recently too and have no idea where to actually start looking for a new job, f**k this shit economy

Everything Microsoft touches turn to shit, there are way too many signs that MS about to exit the console gaming i mean shutting down studios, all xbox exclusives turning into multiplats, they done f**ked it up

@finalstar2007: you do realize that the proposed shutdown is them giving notice? This is just a public release, it's entirely possible they were informed even before this

Charizard, c'mon man. If you wanted a real discussion about this, you would have moved this topic to the Xbox Lobby instead of keeping it in system wars. Since it's here, you can expect the respective replies.

You telling people to stop is immensely flawed, chocolate teapot style .

Keep riding Sony's ding dong

I'm not justifying his action, I'm questioning yours and a few others. I'm asking where were you and the caring brigade a several months ago.

****...

This was the game that first brought me to the Xbox. ****.

You people acting like this isn't the norm in this type of industry. No it is not good, but it is the nature of the beast. What does you heart felt post do for these people? Furthermore, what does negative post do too? If you really cared you would be letting MS know how you feel or better yet, send the affected some money to get back on their feet.

I'm calling it. MS is going to exit the console market pretty soon.

There will be other games.

@flyincloud1116:

You not questioning me on anything cause I've never nor would I ever brag about a studio closing. People out time and effect into making these games we want to play and it's never a good thing to brag when one closes. Families are involved so to not be able to step out of your dumb fanboy box is childish and stupid.

@flyincloud1116: Truth, but the nostalgia of the first franchise to hook me in from back in the day.

@quadknight: define pretty soon

Boy you are silly. I was questioning YOU and your fake outrage. I never dance in the streets for anyone lose, but I don't act all perfect either. People are affected by this type of stuff everyday, hopefully most will be okay. You are one in a box, fake outrage box.

If you are so concerned, I hope you are doing your part to help the affected.

I doubt that, but they may be moving back to the 360 strategy.

Not going to happen.

@flyincloud1116: next 2 to 3 years. I don't see them going on with this Xbox charade for much longer. All their moves seem to be them going towards PC or a Steam Machine type box. Xbox's days are numbered.

Rare must be worried right now.

To be honest the Fable series and Lionhead have been going downhill in quality for a long time now...

Still, it's never fun to see people lose their jobs in this industry. RIP Lionhead :(

Sad news, but not really a huge shock. I loved Black and White, never played the movies, but always wished I had (perennially on my to do list), but the fable games never really clicked with me. Hope everyone there can find employment quickly.

This came out of nowhere.

Wow 2 studios being closed? Fable Legends which seemed about finished is cancelled. WTH????? I was in the closed beta and while it wasn't a groundbreaking game, if you had people who communicated, it was decent fun. I do wish it was more like the traditional games though. Very sad news indeed.

You should list off all the 1st/2nd party studios that Sony has closed down or severed ties with over the last 5 years or so and Let us know when you run out of fingers on both hands to count. Lets not play this game.

Wow, sad days indeed for all those lsot employees, the Xbox brand and our lem friends here in SW's :(

It may be they just transform into a different model. I really think a streaming box is going to become a realistic entity sooner rather than later. We're not far away from the old traditional forms of hardware becoming obsolete.

Damn what a shame, and a waste of time and money. I wonder what the reason is. I thought Fable was popular enough.

It was not my cup of tea tho, so I didn't keep up with the news.

I hope for the best for everyone involved.

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood was awesome. Wonder how far along Press Play was with their new game, I sure would have liked to see them be able to finish as well.

Not too surprise. I am in the closed beta and the game was struggling to be fun. It was a very unique and beautiful game but it needed a lot of work to be successful.

@blue_hazy_basic: While I agree that streaming boxes will eventually become a reality, I still think we are many years away due to horrible internet speeds and latency issues. Internet infrastructure will need to catch up big time for stream boxes to become a reality anytime soon.

@Alucard_Prime: So was I. I've been in the beta since last summer and it was coming along well. A lot of fun and challenging. Real shame. But that's big business for you.

TBH I cant say that I am surprised by this. I enjoyed B+W 1 and 2 and I quite enjoyed Fable TLC but Lionhead have not made anything good since those days. You cant keep releasing crap games and expect to go on, especially when you are in Microsofts pocket.

Guess MS cant manage big business. We hope for the best with the rest of their studios and IPs.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

TLHBO

Lol at some of you calling it the death of the bone

It was a PC game too, also this game had a free to play model, thus it was gonna flop

Smart move ms

@flyincloud1116:

Kid there is no outrage from me. It's dumb to brag about closings period and for you or anyone else to try and justify it by saying others did it so what's the problem doesn't make you or anyone else better.

Use your brain a little harder if you can't understand what I'm saying.

@finalstar2007: WTF? Do you work there? How do you know the employees had no notice? WE had no notice. We don't work there.

Lol at the fake people in here. Sucks people lost their jobs, but this is SW.

Next time a game flops in sales, I want to see who laughs at it.

I'm sorry, but if MS/XBox are closing studios at this point, what very little faith I had in XBox going into the future is completely gone.

Lionhead Studios wasn't the same after Peter Molyneux left years ago and the few that were left just couldn't save the upcoming Fable game. MS tried to restructure LS but couldn't do it with the current few that was running it. Also I wanted an Adventure/RPG type of Fable game but instead the new LS ended up with a F2P game, WTH was that. Sucks for people who liked it though. More resources and more money would have probably been wasted if Fable Legends didn't get canceled. Also Press Play was another small studio with a few people. They only developed like 6 games in total. Sucks for the few hand full of people that lost a job but I'm pretty sure they'll bounce right back up with a new studio and projects, just like every independent developer should do.

Didn't Fable III sell a lot of units though? That's not good news at all. I sincerely hope the people there find work.

Fable Legends looked like crap ever since it was announced. They need to do a Fable 4 and do it right.. Proper action RPG. But if they're going to close lionhead, I doubt that's ever gonna happen.

The crash of video games... So sad.

LESS parity

LESS studios

LESS compelling ideas

MORE financial investment to create.

Horrible state of affairs we are in.

Before anyone goes on a rant about my personal bias, I've been saying for some time that this could be a rebuilding generation for XBox and that they have an opportunity to grow their IP by opening studios.

Closing studios is going right back in the wrong direction. This isn't bad, this is seriously bad if you are a fan of XBox at all.

@Heil68: As an investor one look at their market cap and the fact their stock went from 40s to $55/share this fall will tell a person they can manage big business. I can only speak for myself but I know when Sony cut back SSM and Driveclub devs, I said the same thing I say here. It's a shame and I hope those affected can pull through. I like our teasing and trolling here but I am a bit more liberal hearted when it comes to sad news for working people.............and I was enjoying the Fable Legends beta!!

That's a real shame for the folks at Lionhead, a once legendary studio. Hopefully they'll all get new jobs elsewhere.

Killing a game this far into production is very rare, given the money they must have spent on it already. My guess on this is that they're just plain over budget and out of time. A large company like MS will only accept so much poor budget management for so long from its subsidiaries. If it was an internal studio, rather than first party, they'd have likely sacked the management team first before killing the studio and their game stone dead.

MS aren't shy of doing this kind of thing and it's certainly not the first time. The Halo MMO (Ensemble Studios) is still listed at number 15 for the most expensive games ever made (no.1 for most expensive game never completed) with an estimated budget of $90 million

@TheEroica: And people from all factions actually root for it.