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Canceled Xbox One/PC RPG Fable Legends Could Move Forward - Report

Talks are reportedly underway to save Lionhead's project.

39 Comments

In early March, Microsoft announced that it had canceled Fable Legends and would possibly shutter developer Lionhead Studios along with it. Now, a new report suggests the game may not be entirely dead.

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MCV reports that three sources within Lionhead indicated there have been talks about continuing development on the game. More specifically, Lionhead employees have been asked if they'd be interested in continuing to work on Legends as opposed to being let go with a severance package. One source indicated to the site that there is the possibility of picking up development as an independent studio.

Asked about this possibility, Microsoft offered GameSpot the same comment that it gave MCV, which is largely identical to what it's previously said on the matter: "We aren't sharing additional details beyond that we have ceased development on Fable Legends, and are in discussions with employees at Lionhead about our proposed closure of the studio as well."

Lionhead has been around for almost two decades, having been founded by Peter Molyneux after leaving his previous studio, Bullfrog Productions. Following Molyneux's departure in 2012, Legends was announced in 2013 as an online RPG and was later revealed to be a free-to-play game for Xbox One and PC. A beta has been going on for some time and will continue for a few more days.

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jlenoconel

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Hopefully this will happen. Getting tired of Xbox One owners getting shafted.

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suicidesn0wman

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I think MS should take the Fable license over to one of the well known Japanese developers like Square or maybe even Platinum and see what they can do with the Fable franchise.

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FreeRyu

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@suicidesn0wman: A British game done by a Japanese dev lol. They would try to change too much with it.

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wexorian

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Noo stop beating dead dog seriously.......STOP

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deactivated-5b883bb846c10

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How about they freakling STOP ignoring their fans and making a GOOD Fable 4!!

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deactivated-58183aaaa31d8

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Developer: "Let's do some publicity and tell everyone we are cancelling the project. That way everyone will be happy again when we tell them it isn't gone."

They do it, no one gives a shit.

Developer: "..........****!"

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Godlikan

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Does anyone care? :D

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ecurl143

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Edited By ecurl143

It has to be Microsoft themselves, since they're talking about not paying the severance packages. This seems to indicate that they may give up the ip to the studio instead as compensation? I dunno, it's all very strange.

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rubiconstate

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Edited By rubiconstate

Am I the only one thinking . o O ( just let it die ) ?

It just keeps getting worse with every version.

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OMGMYNAMEWONTFI

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I'm not playing Destiny again until it is 60 frames per second

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LouiXIII

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Edited By LouiXIII

And this is announced right after Sony tosses them a bone lol Microsoft...you guy are a trip

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ClarkeThe3rd

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@louixiii: Are you joking? Sony has no bone to throw. They are the biggest failure of a tech company out there. Read some news.

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LouiXIII

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@clarkethe3rd: 36m sold and this was in January. Sounds like success to me

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BDRTFM

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@louixiii: Not much of a bone. More like a PR stunt. Hey guys we're going to have a job fair to see if we can give you guys some work. Don't worry about the fact that we are closing our studio, Evolution, and letting some of our own staff go, we'd much rather find jobs for MS staff and give our own people the shaft.

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LouiXIII

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@bdrtfm: If it works then it was worth it because now they still have jobs lol

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sladakrobot

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Edited By sladakrobot

"More specifically, Lionhead employees have been asked if they'd be interested in continuing to work on Legends as opposed to being let go with a severance package."

Asked by whom?

I wrote to MS telling them they should keep Lionhead and let them make Fable 4 as MS needs an RPG-franchise in their IP catalogue imo.
What else can a mortal do :-)

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deactivated-5b883bb846c10

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@sladakrobot:

Do you think you can make a petition?

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FreeRyu

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@sladakrobot: If not Fable 4 add a single player story mode to Fable Legends.

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chaos-06

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Make Fable 4 or close the studio and scrap the game. If they want to make free to play trash, they should develop for mobile.

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FreeRyu

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Edited By FreeRyu

@chaos-06: U tried the beta?

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cboye18

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Edited By cboye18

As a corpse? Resident Evil: Fable.

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Thanatos2k

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Edited By Thanatos2k

Without a studio, and without Microsoft caring at all about it? Why bother.

Oh, remember, it was supposed to be F2P trash. It's not worth saving.

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Exectech

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Edited By Exectech

This is not the Fable 4 you're looking for, but that's not a bad thing. This game is fantastic and I really hope it gets saved. I've been in the Beta since March of 2015 and I've got to watch it grow from something I was very unsure of to a great game. The last few months so many great changes have happened. There's very few games that match the thrill of facing a clever human villain with four of your friends as you battle it out through the maps. When they announced the cancelation a lot of previous Beta testers game back and were blown away by what a different game it was. The game is simple to pick up but the depth and replayabiity keeps you comming back. It's great for hardcore competitive gamers and that's where the audience will come from. It is highly addictive and one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. My friends list has tripled playing this game. It is so close to being ready for open Beta. Don't let the "Give Me More of the Same" gamers convince you this game isn't worth saving.

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alaannn

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they should do fable 4

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deactivated-610c3819be19e

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Put this poor Franchise to rest for awhile until you can do something worthwhile with it. What a great universe ruined by MS being MS and Lionhead not pulling their shit together to make it happen.

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FreeRyu

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@WingChopMasta: As a gaming studio they had requirements to meet. If they weren't producing anything why keep them. I do think M$ should remember what devs got them to where the Xbox division is tho.

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deactivated-5845a9a3984cb

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i played it like 6 months ago and didnt like it , picked it up and played it last month and it was even worst , the game designers didn't had a clue what they were doing ... beside art , that was good at some point (not to mention it got downgraded over time ) there was nothing fun about it . blizzard had this problem once with project titan and you know what they did .

so why wont you put your art and gameplay assets to some good use instead of wasting it huh ?

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FreeRyu

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Edited By FreeRyu

@computernoises: The characters in the series always had a weird body parts.

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RSM-HQ

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It would be a waste to scrap it, even if the developer is pretty mediocre now they spent years on this project. Patch it up, and let the gamers decide if it's worth playing. Something is always better than nothing.

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Avatar image for deactivated-610c3819be19e
deactivated-610c3819be19e

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@RSM-HQ: The whole reason this came about was because it wasn't fun to play. It would cost them more over time to keep it alive if it didn't do well. It is a waste but a smaller waste than getting it going and then having it fail.

They've been working on this game for like 5 years, it's been in beta forever because it's not a good game in general and the pricing of their microtransactions was absurd for the shallow game they were building . They need to scrap the concept and make a new one, or just put this cursed franchise to rest if they can muster up the effort to make a proper Fable 4 which is all anyone ever wanted in the first place.

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catsimboy

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It'd be nice if they ditched the whole PvE+P angle and made a singleplayer/2 player co-op Fable game that was actually good with the assets they've built so far. Wishful thinking.

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RossRichard

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Translation: Publicity stunt.

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stage4saiyan

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@RossRichard: Not sure how you got that out of this article

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o311rocks

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@RossRichard: Bingo

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BeefoTheBold

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbE8E1ez97M

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