Microsoft purchases Lionhead Studios

Lionhead recently cut back to 2 teams instead of 3, so I doubt Dmitri, Fable 2 and BC are all getting made right now. If I had to guess, I'd say that BC is not being made.

Anyone know how this affects the B&W2 expansion being published by EA?


BTW, EndR, your signature would gain parallel form by saying, "Sony popularized it."
 
EndR said:
one of Molyneux comments was that the Amiga was his absolute favorite hardware to work with...
Though at the time, Amiga was the biggest baddest piece of kit going for a while! And on modern machines where he wants to add growing trees but can't because of resources, maybe he'd like a change to hugest platform going and not be constrained? Just chucking debate out there. I've no idea what Molyneux's platform preferences are.
For 360, as I understand it, both Fable2 AND B.C is under development)
Well that's strange. This doesn't gel with the interviewee's comments. So either Lionhead are producing for consoles and MS don't know that they're doing this, or they've moved a game onto PC and aren't continuing the XB variety?
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Though at the time, Amiga was the biggest baddest piece of kit going for a while! And on modern machines where he wants to add growing trees but can't because of resources, maybe he'd like a change to hugest platform going and not be constrained? Just chucking debate out there. I've no idea what Molyneux's platform preferences are.
Well that's strange. This doesn't gel with the interviewee's comments. So either Lionhead are producing for consoles and MS don't know that they're doing this, or they've moved a game onto PC and aren't continuing the XB variety?

Regarding the Fable2 and B.C comments.. that was what I´ve heard. The situation could have changed now with the cutting of one team.

mcvuk.com will have a more detailed interview with Molyneux today so maybe more info will come out from that..
 
It would have been crazy for Microsoft not to secure the Fable development team. They need a big game to follow behind Halo 3 and Fable proved itself sales wise.

One possible advantage of owning Lionhead is that they can use technology from other Microsoft Game Studios. Rare has to have some advanced engine technology by now and isn't it just a short driving distance away?


How close together are Lionhead and Rare studios?
 
Brimstone said:
One possible advantage of owning Lionhead is that they can use technology from other Microsoft Game Studios. Rare has to have some advanced engine technology by now and isn't it just a short driving distance away?
That depends on if you're American or not. Rare is 'up north', in Ashby-de-la-zouch, whereas Lionhead is just down the road from me, Guildford. That's about 135 miles. Normally Americans consider such distances to be 'just next door' from what I hear :D
 
Shifty Geezer said:
That depends on if you're American or not. Rare is 'up north', in Ashby-de-la-zouch, whereas Lionhead is just down the road from me, Guildford. That's about 135 miles. Normally Americans consider such distances to be 'just next door' from what I hear :D

Rare is where?!!
 
Shifty Geezer said:
That depends on if you're American or not. Rare is 'up north', in Ashby-de-la-zouch, whereas Lionhead is just down the road from me, Guildford. That's about 135 miles. Normally Americans consider such distances to be 'just next door' from what I hear :D

How nice is the Lionhead studio? I've seen pictures of the Rare studio and it looks sweet, but I don't think I've ever seen what Lionhead studio looks like.


135 miles isn't far at all. They could set up meetings at some location halfway between them and only have to drive 67 miles each way. Maybe Rare should consider building a helicopter pad. :)
 
london-boy said:
Rare is where?!!
Ashby de la Zouch, Leceister. Well, actually they're at nearby Twyford, but Ashby de la Zouch is such a groovy name!
How nice is the Lionhead studio? I've seen pictures of the Rare studio and it looks sweet, but I don't think I've ever seen what Lionhead studio looks like.
I don't know. I may have passed it at some point but there's plenty of business parks with glass buildings that all look much of a sort. Then again they may be tucked away in a brick farmhouse somewhere. There's quite a few software and games companies in this neck of the wood, EA having a large showing at Chertsey. Sony's UK office is at Weybridge (very nice place!). Definitely a good part of the world to be if you wanted to get in this field, as London is also readily accessible on the commuter routes too. But then in one of the most densly populated parts of the Earth in a technologically 'up there' country, that isn't really surprising. With this many people per square mile there's bound to be a glut of offices with even an average number of companies:population!
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Ashby de la Zouch, Leceister. Well, actually they're at nearby Twyford, but Ashby de la Zouch is such a groovy name!

:oops: I thought you were joking... really ... How do you pronounce that? :oops:
 
Ash-bee de la zouch (to rhyme with skooch I think). IIRC it's from some norman french baron or something or other who owned the area post Conquest, but I could be way off the mark with that one.

Hey, get this! Wikipedia even has an entry for Ashby-de-la-zouch!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashby-de-la-Zouch

I'm amazed what info finds its way onto that site. Nice to see my history is correct too.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Well that's strange. This doesn't gel with the interviewee's comments. So either Lionhead are producing for consoles and MS don't know that they're doing this, or they've moved a game onto PC and aren't continuing the XB variety?

Fable is one of the top 3 MS franchises from XBOX, no way in the world that Lionhead is not working at a sequal, and I'm sure MS knows abou it ;)
 
So is Peter Molyneux staying? I remember him leaving Bullfrog after the EA purchase because he wanted to be independent and pursue his own ideas. If Peter stays, Lionhead is a good purchase. If he plans to leave, that would make it a rather bad idea.
 
hupfinsgack said:
So is Peter Molyneux staying? I remember him leaving Bullfrog after the EA purchase because he wanted to be independent and pursue his own ideas. If Peter stays, Lionhead is a good purchase. If he plans to leave, that would make it a rather bad idea.

for some reason I think he would be happier with MGS then EA, he will probably have more creative freedom and financial backing there and not just cranking out games
 
Molyneux has said he's happy with the purchase. Dunno if he said the same about EA buying Bullfrog though!

Fable is one of the top 3 MS franchises from XBOX, no way in the world that Lionhead is not working at a sequal, and I'm sure MS knows abou it ;)
What does Rob Fahey mean by this then...

GI : You mentioned Games For Windows as well as Xbox 360 earlier - but when Lionhead dropped to two teams, they said that they were working specifically on two next-gen projects. Is it the case then that they're currently working on 360 titles, and that you'll be getting them to do PC titles further down the line?

RF : Lionhead will be focusing on Games For Windows.
With only 2 titles in development at the moment, one for each platform isn't focussing on either. Unless Fable 2 is in development, but after that Lionhead will be mostly focussing on PC?
 
pegisys said:
for some reason I think he would be happier with MGS then EA, he will probably have more creative freedom and financial backing there and not just cranking out games

Not sure if he would, many from Rare and Bungie leave after being bought be MS, many of them told that it is because MS is controling them too much and they had no freedom.
 
pc999 said:
Not sure if he would, many from Rare and Bungie leave after being bought be MS, many of them told that it is because MS is controling them too much and they had no freedom.

Hopefully MS bought Lionhead so that he COULD have creative freedom and bring something new to the console. Otherwise its a pretty useless purchase of a studio that would have done Fable 3 for the 360 anyways...
 
pc999 said:
Not sure if he would, many from Rare and Bungie leave after being bought be MS, many of them told that it is because MS is controling them too much and they had no freedom.


Many? no there's hasn't been large numbers of people leaving either rare or bungie. I'm not sure where you got that info. Some people left, but that is pretty normal in the game biz.
 
hupfinsgack said:
So is Peter Molyneux staying? I remember him leaving Bullfrog after the EA purchase because he wanted to be independent and pursue his own ideas. If Peter stays, Lionhead is a good purchase. If he plans to leave, that would make it a rather bad idea.
I think I read a little snippet of an interview with Molyneux where he said that EA forced Bullfrog to grow very quickly, and they weren't ready for that. Then he said that MS was happy with their current size, so he didn't see that being an issue. And based on what I've seen from MS, they're quite willing to throw 50+ people at a project from their side, so Molyneux's comment makes sense.


I guess MS was making stuff with Lionhead and that stuff would have been jeopardized by getting purchased by another company, hence the buyout. All the people up in arms about MS rolling over the industry need to get some perspective. MS has a pretty strong track record of working with gaming companies without taking them over.
 
Inane_Dork said:
I think I read a little snippet of an interview with Molyneux where he said that EA forced Bullfrog to grow very quickly, and they weren't ready for that. Then he said that MS was happy with their current size, so he didn't see that being an issue. And based on what I've seen from MS, they're quite willing to throw 50+ people at a project from their side, so Molyneux's comment makes sense.


I guess MS was making stuff with Lionhead and that stuff would have been jeopardized by getting purchased by another company, hence the buyout. All the people up in arms about MS rolling over the industry need to get some perspective. MS has a pretty strong track record of working with gaming companies without taking them over.

I think more people are wondering why MS doesn't buy more studios.
 
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