Eurogamer has recently posted a very detailed report on the fall of Lionhead Studios. At its core, the studio wanted to work on a dark and gritty new Fable, unsurprisingly titled Fable IV, and Microsoft despised the idea.
“We wanted to hit the late Victorian proper far out Jules Verne sh*t,” said former Lionhead Art Director John McCormack.
“It would be darker and grittier. And because it was R-rated it would have the prostitutes and the humor,” he said. “I was like, man, this is going to be f*cking brilliant, and everybody was really into it.”
Fable IV would have been set in London with Jack the Ripper appearing as a Balverine in disguise. Seriously. Deeply set in British mythology, other “weird f*cked up London” icons like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde would have been given similar treatments.
In the end, McCormack says Microsoft said, “It’s not good enough. Fuck off,” which may have been paraphrased. Nonetheless, it’s reported that the publisher then set Lionhead off — and spent $75 million dollars in the process — to work on the free-to-play multiplayer shooter known as Fable Legends instead.
Another source close to Lionhead said part of the downfall of the studio and the cancellation of Legends was that studio founder Peter Molyneux left the team.
“Peter could do what he wanted and he could say no to Microsoft about almost anything. He had that power, and when he left we suddenly felt a bit more vulnerable,” the source maintained.
Eurogamer’s write up is gigantic, but certainly worth a full read. Check it out here.
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