Microsoft Cancels 'Fable Legends', Says It Wants to Close Lionhead Studios

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 09 Mar 2016

Fable Legends was supposed to hit open beta this spring. But instead of opening its doors to the awaiting public, it’s shutting them in our faces – permanently.

That’s because Microsoft decided to cancel the game. And if that wasn't enough for you, Microsoft also said that it is thinking about closing the game’s developer, Lionhead Studios.

“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,” Hanno Lemke, General Manager with Microsoft Studios Europe announced.

Fable Legends would have been free to play

About a year ago, Lionhead Studios announced that it decided to make Fable Legends free to play. You could play the game from beginning to end, access the entire storyline and quests, and even purchase items that made your Heroes or your creatures more powerful, all without having to spend a dime.

The game would have used two types of currencies: silver and gold. While gold could be purchased with real-life money, silver could be earned just by playing the game. Just by playing Fable Legends you earned silver which you could then use to purchase items.




Fable Legends has been in the works for a long, long time

Lionhead Studios has been working on this cooperative action role-playing video game for quite some time now. Here's a quick look at its timeline.

Lionhead started working on the game in the summer of 2012 (the same year that Peter Molyneux announced that he would be leaving Lionhead and Microsoft).

In August 2013, Fable Legends was introduced to the world via the cinematic trailer embedded below.



The first gameplay footage was unveiled at E3 2014.



A closed beta went live in October 2014.

While fans expected Fable Legends to hit open beta by the end of 2015, that did not happen. In December 2015, Lionhead Studios announced that the public beta had been delayed until spring 2016.

And now that it is spring 2016, Microsoft announced that Fable Legends has been canceled and that Lionhead Studios itself may close.


Fable Legends will close for good on April 13, 2016

If you were accepted into the Fable Legends closed beta, you can play the game until 15:00 GMT on Wednesday 13 April. The service won’t be available after that time.

Players who used real money to purchase gold will be offered a full refund. “Players who are eligible for a refund will be provided further information by email within the next 7 days,” says the official Fable Legends website.



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