It's a sad day for Xbox fans because Microsoft has made a big move, one that might affect the company and its fanbase in the future. Apparently, the software giant has put an end to Fable Legends and is proposing the closure of the game's development house, Lionhead Studios.
Fable Legends being cancelled shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone because from what we have seen since the game's announcement in the past, no one in the press had any real love for the title. The gameplay looked boring and the overall idea just didn't resonate with gamers.
What came as a surprise, however, is the proposed closing of Lionhead Studios. This is a video game studio that has been around since 1996 thanks to founder, Peter Molyneux. The studio gave gamers a solid experience in the form of the Fable series and Black & White. Molyneux would eventually leave Lionhead Studios in 2006, and then Microsoft in 2012.
"After much consideration we have decided to cease development on Fable Legends, and are in discussions with employees about the proposed closure of Lionhead Studios in the UK," explained Hanno Lemke on the official Xbox newswire reported by GameSpot.
Microsoft has not yet fully confirmed the closure of Lionhead Studios, but we expect this to happen in the coming weeks. This is likely because UK laws require companies to give employees a 30-day period to find new jobs among other things before a closure can commence.
Lionhead Studios is not the only developer house that has been closed by Microsoft lately. Press Play, the guys behind Max and other titles has also been shuttered by Microsoft.
While these closure might shock fans, Microsoft is saying it still plans on creating solid first-party titles. However, the idea here is to create video games people want to play. From what we have taken from that, it seems Microsoft might take less risks in its game design choices going forward until the company has more room for failures.
The era of the Xbox 360 was a time when the software giant could have done whatever it wanted because that period was quite successful. The same cannot be said about the Xbox One at the moment.