Xbox Admits 'Big Missteps' With The Handling Of Lionhead Studios

That basically describes Rare as well. Rare’s direction has drastically changed since the buyout in 2001.

Fable 1 to this day is still one of the best RPGs I've ever played. Such a shame what happened to that series and Lionhead. Here's hoping the new one get it back on track.

Just started Fable anniversary on gamepass and I'm already laughing at the British voices, even though I'm British myself they always sound "too" much in games. But it adds to the games charm

Microsoft: Forces Lionhead to make games they dont want to make and dont know how to make and proceeds to shut them down for making those games

Also Microsoft: "I wish Lionhead was still a viable studio"

I would literally kill for someone to bring back the Black & White series.

Sometimes you have to make mistakes to learn valuable lessons and that's exactly what happened here.
If you have a studio that is great at something or has a passion for something, you let them lean into that.

@Handy_Man I feel Rare are back on track now, Sea of Thieves is an absolute masterpiece (even if lacking content at launch). Imo it is the best, current, exclusive IP that Microsoft has. It may not be to everyones taste and sucks to play solo, but it is the most fun/laughter I have had in a video game in the last 5 years at least

Fable 3 was handled pretty badly as well. Not enough of an evolution on what Fable 2 laid a foundation for.

Confident in Playground Games nailing the reboot though. Cant wait.

@Medic_Alert I don't think they've actually learned anything look at what they've done with halo

@Medic_Alert well I doubt the majority of the halo fanbase wanted the multiplayer to go barebones free to play with a battle pass or wanted the campaign to release without co op or forge

I know Fable 3 is divisive but I still consider it a good Fable game. That was over 10 years ago now. Too long to wait for another true Fable game. Looking forward to what Playground Games does with the IP.

@Handy_Man I hear you. But it's not like Sea of Thieves doesn't have a large following and is successful. Lot people enjoy heck out that game.

@Medic_Alert I mean it's Microsoft forcing decisions like stripping the multiplayer from the game & making it free to play then adding micro transactions & releasing the campaign unfinished unless 343 wanted those things

Wasn't molyneux in charge of them? Glad it got quiet around that snake oil quack.

@Medic_Alert if you want to play it for the first time in co-op then you've got 6+ months of trying to avoid spoilers I think the decisions they've made for this game are really poor

@Would_you_kindly You're a weird one. I always see your comments always trying to berate MS. lol what a odd bodd

@Ihavenomouthandimust if you don't like my opinion that's fine I also criticise some of Sony & Nintendo's decisions 🤷‍♂️

@Would_you_kindly Just odd lol. Why not simply have fun and enjoy gaming

@Ihavenomouthandimust I think criticism is a good thing there's been a few articles today about the xbox one launch & that's a perfect example of when criticism is a good thing

@SacredPYRO I agree! Think about this a lot. I’m sure they could make it work well with a controller too

@BundyDanger the "gesture" controls for spells and interacting with Creatures would have been a perfect fit for Kinect but that ship has sailed now.

@Would_you_kindly people seem to hate the Multiplayer option of going free, but I personally know a few people who haven’t played Halo since the original Xbox that now play Halo Infinite multiplayer on PC because it was free for them to try out and they found they liked it.

I know the free to play model isn’t the best. But in order to get Halo played by more people it was a great strategy that I think will pay off and will be the model in the future.

Molyneux seemed like he needed the boot, but they still could have kept Lionhead Studios going. Them and Rare will always be two studios that show how poorly Microsoft was managing things with their 1st party up until their recent turnaround with Phil Spencer. How things turned out up until the last couple of years is basically an instructional video on how not to manage a video game division, as they were clearing riding very high going into the Xbox 360 generation, only being able to finally turn things around lately.

In the end, hopefully this will be just an unfortunate part of their history and things will be extremely good by the time things really get rolling in a year or two.

@Kienda I dunno the multiplayer seems really basic atm with not many features , maps , customisation etc would this have been the same if it had been included with the campaign like every other halo

@Handy_Man I honestly dont think Rare would still be on the same place it was back then. Studios tend to evolve, it's rare for a studio to stick to its roots.

Case in point, Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog. In the last decade Housemarque has also been doing a similar shift.

The Nintendos and Telltales of the world are very very rare. Here is hoping that Double Fine also keept their current path because this world needs more of that, and less super serious gritty kill things games.

@Would_you_kindly the scope of the campaign was the biggest they ever aimed for. It was a giant project and they already mentioned a lot of stuff they wanted to go for had to be abandoned (although that is normal in game dev.)

It is not unrealistic to think multiplayer would have been even more barebones had it been part of the base game, as it would had been harder to justify the asset development.

@Tharsman I'm not sure I want to play the campaign anymore because I've heard they killed off cortana off screen so she's not in it & I'd be really disappointed if that's true

The closure of Ensemble Studios was also a terrible choice. It's clear from the fact that they are now working on Age of Empires.

@MSX I've already got a playstation & a Nintendo....

Q) What do you think about how Lionhead Studios was handled?

A) I think it was handled pretty poorly. The direction the Fable games took with Fable: The Journey and Fable Legends were all in accordance to the direction Microsoft wanted them too at the time (Kinect and online/multiplayer focus), yet Lionhead got the blame when things didn't go well.

I also think it was disappointing that Lionhead weren't given the opportunity to show what they could do without Peter Molyneux in charge. Fable Legends didn't even get to release and it's something that still stings to this day. It was one of the reasons I purchased an Xbox One and was really excited with what they showed off, despite it's differences with a traditional Fable game.

@Tharsman IDK about Housemarque, Returnal is a cleverly disguised, expanded shmup, true to their roots. That's what's fun about it

@Would_you_kindly I agree about coop and forge, and am in the same boat of trying not to play too much Halo until that releases. That's not really "MS' fault" though in the context of what happened to Lionhead, Ensemble, Rare, and other studios over the years. That's 343i's internal incompetence and mismanagement that took 6 years and with a whole extra year still couldn't have the content ready in time. MS had so little to do with that they didn't even know the game wasn't ready for release...they under-managed 343. Probably compensating for their heavy-handed abusive management of studios like Lionhead.

Multiplayer..... Multiplayer online shooters are F2P MTX games now. It's just the way it is, love it or hate it. If Halo was going to be a relevant, competitive online shooter with the likes of Apex and Fortnite, it had to be F2P. It's how the kids play today. That's how the online shooter market works now, at least if it aims to be one of the top titles. CoD can get away with charging full price, plus deluxe editions AND operate like an mtx-ridden F2P without actually being free because it's CoD. Battlfefield is struggling with that model. Anthem crashed and burned. Avengers is struggling mightily. Maybe Halo could get away with that too, but isn't free with mtx and passes better than RRP + mtx + passes?

I'm not into it and just ignore the whole multiplayer shooter genre at this point. But I understand why they did it. Not doing it would have been a death blow for it, it would be just another ignored shooter.