A few weeks ago, there were reports that Microsoft had decided to keep the rights to Fable IP and Lionhead Studios was closing down.
Now new reports have come up which claim that Lionhead Studios could have been saved but Microsoft decided not to because they didn’t want to give up the licensing rights to Fable IP.
If the rumours are to be believed, Lionhead Studios did have a long list of potential buyers that wanted to purchase the studio and keep it running, just like it happens to a lot of other companies when they are at the verge of shutting down.
A few of them were pretty big names in the video game industry and they had also filed letters of intent, which means Lionhead Studio could have been saved one way or another.
But that didn’t happen and Microsoft decided to close the doors to Lionhead Studios instead.
It happened because Microsoft did not want to give up Fable rights and its franchise profits. This obviously became a major deal breaker for a lot of potential buyers because that would mean they couldn’t develop any new Fable games without sharing profit margins with Microsoft.
In fact, it was such a big deal breaker that 90% of the potential buyers walked away at that very point.
There was also news that a few months back Lionhead Studios was working on a new Fable Legends, which was going to be a role-playing online multi player game but Microsoft decided to kill the title even after the beta version had gone live.
This is obviously a very clear indication that it is almost impossible that Fable fans will ever see a new version of the game come to life.
Giving an explanation to the Fable fans, Microsoft wrote on their blog “The Lionhead Studios team has delighted millions of fans with the Fable series over the past decade. 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.”
But if Microsoft is holding on to Fable franchise the reason has to be more than just killing the game. It could be possible that Microsoft might plan to create a new franchise game in the future with the help of some other studio. But right now, the chances see pretty slim and Fable only feels like a far-distant memory.
Lionhead Studios was also responsible for giving the world Black and White franchise but Fable will always be the most beloved game from the studios.
