Microsoft Has Canceled Xbox One's 'Fable Legends' And May Shutter Lionhead

It would be hard to blame you at this point if you forgot that Fable Legends existed, but now, it no longer does. Microsoft has officially canceled the game, and may shut down the developer making it, Lionhead Studio, in addition to a couple other closures.

The 4v1 asymmetric game has been in development since 2012, and was announced in 2013. By 2014, it had a closed beta, and there were grand plans for a F2P model and a 5-10 year lifespan for the game on Xbox One and PC. An open beta was supposed to be right around the corner this spring.

But it seems that behind the scenes, things have been progressing poorly for Fable Legends, and its demise has been predicted by industry analysts, press and fans more than once over the years, as something always just felt a bit…off with the title. Now, they’ve all been proven right. Here’s Microsoft’s official statement on the cancelation and their other closures:

“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. Additionally, we will close Press Play Studios in Denmark, and sunset development on Project Knoxville.

These have been tough decisions and we have not made them lightly, nor are they a reflection on these development teams – we are incredibly fortunate to have the talent, creativity and commitment of the people at these studios. The Lionhead Studios team has delighted millions of fans with the Fable series over the past decade. Press Play imbued the industry with a unique creative spirit behind games like Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and Kalimba, which both captured passionate fans. These changes are taking effect as Microsoft Studios continues to focus its investment and development on the games and franchises that fans find most exciting and want to play.”

Microsoft concludes the statement saying that they’re not abandoning other studios and unique IPs, citing Quantum Break, Sea of Thieves and Ori and the Blind Forrest. But these other guys? They’re out of luck.

It’s obviously sad when any studio shuts down and people lose their jobs, but many are mourning Lionhead in particular, due to its history creating great games.

Unfortunately, that’s been part of the problem. Lionhead has a history creating great games, something they have arguably not done since Fable 2 in 2008. Fable 3 started a downward trend, and with Peter Molyneux leaving the company after that, they have simply not produced a worthwhile title since. For all the scorn Molyneux gets, he did create worthwhile products at Lionhead once upon a time, from Black and White to the earlier Fables, but after he left, the studio never really was the same.

So while I think Lionhead may be on the chopping block for good reason, I think it would be madness for Microsoft to throw away the Fable IP altogether. Once upon a time, Fable was one of the biggest draws for the Xbox, outside of Halo and Gears, and despite a string of bad, bad games, I think there’s a potential to return the series to its RPG roots, and create a new title that actually has the chance to succeed.

Turning Fable into an on-rails Kinect game was a travesty, and while Fable Legends certainly looked more promising than that, it never really seemed like a logical direction for the series. 4v1 asymmetric gameplay has proven to be an elusive formula. Evolve was not exactly the monster hit it wanted to be, and recently BioWare canceled their own 4v1 game, Shadow Realms. It’s not exactly a burgeoning corner of the market, and Fable probably shouldn’t have even been there to begin with.

But if Microsoft got a great studio working on a full-on Fable 4? That could easily be an IP people would be eager to see. I want to believe that the series still has life in it, provided it can be steered away from all these strange genres where it doesn’t belong.

So while Fable Legends is dead, hopefully Microsoft finds a way to make Fable live on, with or without Lionhead.

Correction: I called "Lionhead," "Lionshead" by accident a whole bunch of times.

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