Changes at MS UK & Denmark, Fable Legends Development Ceased

Spencer is tying to get the "Legendary Respected Studios getting Killed to Fuck" achievement.

He's almost there. If he can only kill Remedy (with unrealistic DLC and TVTVTV requirements) he'll have another 20 Gamerscore Points, and that would be RADICAL.
 
Crackdown is not going to be a game changer.

why not , the destruction demos I've shown put it in a class on its own. I've never seen anything like that even from totally online games. It could be truly transformative for the industry
 
I dont see much light at the end of the tunnel

If only they were on better terms with Team Ninja... Xbox360/One/Win10 cross-DLC.

Though I wonder if Harmonix would be interested as well.

Not that these games are popular enough, but as a heavy 360 user, it'd get me back somewhat. Oh well.
 
I can't say I'm surprised. As much as people love to hate Molyneux, he was the heart and soul of both Lionhead and the Fable franchise. He may have dreamt way bigger than he could ever deliver, but at least he dreamt big and attempted to realise those dreams in his games.

With him gone, noone at Lionhead was evidently able to pick up where he left off.

Microsoft was in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation with Lionhead. Molyneax was out of touch with modern game development and needed to go. But Molyneux was also the only reason Lionhead was able to create games that could hook players. Either keep him and see project after project release unfinished with promises unfullfilled, or boot him and risk losing any ability for the studio to create anything compelling.

It was a no-win situation whatever they did. Normally a studio would get disolved in a situation like this. Both Sony, Microsoft and all other publishers have done this with development studios in the past. However, Fable was still viewed as a very valuable IP at the time Molyneux left and Microsoft hoped someone at Lionhead would be able to take over and keep things going.

Meh. I'm sad to see it happen, as I'm a fan of the Fable series (wasn't looking forward to Fable Legends though as that wasn't a "Fable" game), but I can't lie and say I didn't see this coming once Molyneux was gone. Then again, like I said, even if Molyneux had been kept on, there likely would have never again been a good Fable game. Molyneux dreams + modern development realities = unfinished games being released.

Regards,
SB
 
No surprise here. I was in the closed beta and the game was garbage.

I believe I even took some flak for saying so in the game thread.

Despite the game being a mess I wish I would have been allowed to play the closed beta. I really hate that they are closing Lionhead!

I love Fable 1/2/3.
 
What's MS's first-party output been? My uneducated view is similar to Rikimaru's. Rare were put onto Kinect and couldn't deliver beyond some fad hits. Last 'real' game they did was Kameo? It does seem as though studios MS acquires fizzle out of what made them special. If we look at Sony, though they close studios they also get good output from those they operate. Studio Liverpool was closed simply because they could get more from other studios, they felt, even though Liverpool were able to put out Wipeout quality titles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios#Software_development_studios
19 game studios. Halo, Gears, Forza, and a bunch of Kinect and Hololens. Some in that list aren't even making games it seems, like Garage. First party game output on X1 seems very sparse, and then MS axe a studio, reducing their production capability.

If you really look at that their list of studios, the only notable and active studios Microsoft have are 343, Mojang, The Coalition, Turn 10, and Rare. 5 studios. That is paper thin. Especially when you compare it to Sony and Nintendo.
 
beta was pretty great the first time I tried it, in terms of promise. Came back to it later, and they'd made some nice changes. Then I took some extended time away, came back and it was ... barely changed, not even remotely ready for release. My guess is Microsoft could see they were a long ways out and the end product would just damage the brand.
 
Microsoft just can can not manage and develop games studios.
Rare's Project Dream won't be a hit either I think.
I disagree with your statement.
Shit happens. Games go off the rails and get canceled. Studios get closed down.
Great studios get shut down. You can blame it on Ms if you want, but it doesn't mean they can't manage game studios.
 
Considering their well storied history of shutting down studios like ten to fifteen years after buying them, well... Minecraft's got about, what, 13 years left?
 
I can't say I'm surprised. As much as people love to hate Molyneux, he was the heart and soul of both Lionhead and the Fable franchise.

[Edited for sobriety]

I don't think Molyneux deserves most of the credit for the Fable games.

The dev staff were in a constant battle against his lies. He'd promise things that were unachievable, without bothering to consult his team and really drop them in it. The real developers around the guy then had to try and create as much of the lie as they could while still staying true to the idea of delivering a coherent product.

Their games were always launched into negative buzz due to Molyneux's mouth. And by goodness, that utterly fake Milo 'demo'! That was something else.

Look at what he's achieved since leaving Lionhead...
 
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He's almost there. If he can only kill Remedy (with unrealistic DLC and TVTVTV requirements) he'll have another 20 Gamerscore Points, and that would be RADICAL.

Remedy, being fully independent, have the option of saying no. I do think it's a miracle that Rare still exists. That has to be one of the most tragic transformations from AAA studio to whatever they are now - right up there with Sony's Studio Liverpool / Psygnosis who were also around since the 1980s. But three internal racer studios (Liverpool, Polyphony and Evolution) is overkill in an industry where racers are struggling.
 
why not , the destruction demos I've shown put it in a class on its own. I've never seen anything like that even from totally online games. It could be truly transformative for the industry
Lets wait for a finished product. That destruction will only be present in a multiplayer, and who knows if there will be issues with servers/physic client syncing/etc. Who knows if MP will be any good, and if the rest of the package will attract attention of the gamers.

I personally don't see C3 being anywhere close to a big hit.
 
I'm actually happy that MS didn't buy Platinum Games now that I think of it.

I also hope they keep their hands off Remedy. I mean, I can imagine the 2019 title "Quantum Break 3: Back in Time" not breaking 2 million and getting some bad press because of filling up your time meter requires micro transactions...
 
I look forward to Tuesday where Sony announce their new completely original games Bafle followed by Wack & Blite. :nope:
 
If Sony hires the people, and brings back Molyneux then we could have another Syndicate or theme hospital of course they would need to change the names
 
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