Fable legends cancelled and possible Lionhead studios closing

[Team Andromeda]

I definitely think of Lionhead as a quality studio but MS wasted them for the last 6 yrs

Depends though . I mean Lionhead gone from making their own In-House tech to using Unreal and would love to know why even after 3 years Fable legends wasn't even out , I mean over 3 years and we're still in the Beta stage ? and I guess in various meetings Lionhead had little else to offer in terms of projects . So MS had enough.

[Asura]

would love to know why even after 3 years Fable legends wasn't even out ... So MS had enough.

Remember, a dev team is always something of a black box - we can only peer in from the outside. Doubtless the story will emerge soon enough, but it could've been executive meddling.

Referring back to my point above, freemium games aren't supposed to see that kind of development time. They're meant to be released when much-less-than-finished, and garner an audience of weeks and months as they finish the game - or the game flounders and is never quite finished.

This way of working makes sense for community-driven videogames, but big corporate companies like MS don't like to work in this way, because it reflects a business model of "we'll try it and see how far it goes" - whereas they like to know upfront what their ROI is, i.e. how much they intend to make.

I strongly suspect this'll be one of those products that was assassinated by corporate culture, not by development oversight.

[gambit6613]

I may well be in the minority here but absolutley loved Fable 3, i really enjoyed it. Possibly a big reason i enojoyed it so much was i dont recall reading that much of Molyneux' bull**** so didnt have expectiation to be let down by. I havented played it for years so perhaps if i was to play it again maybe it wont have stood the test of time. But none the less the Fable series is one of my fav Xbox games.

[Team Andromeda]

Remember, a dev team is always something of a black box - we can only peer in from the outside. Doubtless the story will emerge soon enough, but it could've been executive meddling.

I can see why people stick the boot into MS with RARE and the way they've miss used the studio, but at least with RARE they have their own R&D tech section and as well as making games being doing lots of stuff for the front end and Avatar side of things . What have Lionhead being doing other than getting used to Unreal tech and working on Fable for the past 3 years and still only in the Beta stage ?

Referring back to my point above, freemium games aren't supposed

Just hate F2P myself . Can't see how it works for the PC and console game sectors , mobile phone could be different though

[Neon Ignition]

Was Lionhead a large developer? As in able to work on more than one title at a time?
It's a bit like Rare where it's a wonder it's still intact but it's none core ip contribution is largely behind that. With Lionhead it's always seemed like one title at a time, seems like a shame if they had to focus on one game where for others they would be side projects to something more mainstream.

Still not as big a mystery as to why Sony has allowed Last Guardian to continue existing

[Asura]

Just hate F2P myself . Can't see how it works for the PC and console game sectors , mobile phone could be different though

It works fine, but the problem the industry needs to come to terms with is that it will never be a good "fit" for certain experiences.

It works for highly competitive games which have a lot of compartmentalised content. For example, a future freemium Street Fighter game (which V is almost, tbh) would work fine. You'd be able to play a version of the game for free, though it'd have a very small character roster that changes each week - then if you want to have a specific character to use whenever you want, you buy that character with real money, say for a fiver. You can also earn characters just by playing the game a lot. Some stuff like costumes or customisations like taunts will always cost real money.

That's just a daft example but it'd work pretty well.

The problem is that the model doesn't apply well to something like Mass Effect. Story-driven experiences really suffer when constrained to freemium models. These would always need to be at some kind of pricepoint.

[Dogg Thang]

Yep, and this is why it's very hard to see how that was going to be a fit for Fable beyond a quick and dirty spin-off as a cheap by-product of the development of a premium game (such as the bar games thing).

[Asura]

Yep, and this is why it's very hard to see how that was going to be a fit for Fable beyond a quick and dirty spin-off as a cheap by-product of the development of a premium game (such as the bar games thing).

That's why they made what they made, though - a competitive online game with character-focused content.

I actually really liked the idea of it - a kind of fantasy Left-4-Dead, where a fifth player controls the enemies. Seemed cool.

[MartyG]

You'll be able to keep playing the Beta until 15:00 GMT on Wednesday 13 April 2016 - given it's being shuttered it's a bit puzzling why they're letting this continue to run for over a month.

[Team Andromeda]

It works fine, but the problem the industry needs to come to terms with is that it will never be a good "fit" for certain experiences.

Name me a game where it works for consoles ? . I really can't think of any if any and Im not being funny btw

Lionhead it's always seemed like one title at a time

In their glory days they were able to work on multi projects like The Movies, Black and White 2 as well as Fable. Seems they gone the route of CORE where 1 game takes over the studio and where the main staff that made those games what they were, leave and the studio just the studio can't replace them and run the IP into the ground and in the end shut down

[Asura]

Name me a game where it works for consoles ? . I really can't think of any if any and Im not being funny btw

World of Tanks has been doing pretty well, I understand. SMITE, too (that's getting a PS4 release soon after success on Xbone). Didn't Xbox Killer Instinct work as a freemium game? Tecmo ran their freemium Dead or Alive game long enough to suggest it was making them money. Planetside 2 on PS4, though I haven't seen figures for that.

To be fair, though, it's only with the PS4/Xbox One that freemium games on console have really been viable. It was possible previously but the machines lacked the flexibility to get much out of it (along with Sony and MS themselves).

[Team Andromeda]

World of Tanks has been doing pretty well,.

I think that's quite a bit different to a big budget AAA game that's meant to be F2P , it doesn't look like it working out for Deep Down . Planetside 2 would may have a point though

[Asura]

I think that's quite a bit different to a big budget AAA game that's meant to be F2P , it doesn't look like it working out for Deep Down . Planetside 2 would may have a point though

To be fair though, the fact that it hasn't been quite cracked yet is as much a reason to try as not to. The proof from the PC market suggests it can be made to work.

[eastyy]

Didn't Xbox Killer Instinct work as a freemium game?
.

Killer instinct the free version is basically you get to play one character and have access to all modes like multiplayer and story mode, and the free character would change every now and then and you could choose to pay for individual characters or just get the lot, there is a KI gold which you can pay for to unlock costumes and colours but you do not need them and can just play the game to get them.

[Asura]

Killer instinct the free version is basically you get to play one character and have access to all modes like multiplayer and story mode, and the free character would change every now and then and you could choose to pay for individual characters or just get the lot, there is a KI gold which you can pay for to unlock costumes and colours but you do not need them and can just play the game to get them.

Yeah, that's freemium. SMITE is the same.