It was announced a few weeks ago that development on Fable Legends was being ceased and that Lionhead Studios might be shut down in the near future. Even though it was rumored that perhaps the team would be allowed to stay on and complete work on this free-to-play online cooperative game but it was soon made clear that Fable Legends had reached the end of the road. Microsoft has now confirmed a similar fate for Lionhead Studios.
Microsoft, Lionhead’s parent company, has confirmed in a statement that Lionhead Studios has shut down. It also said that it working to shift the studio’s employees to different divisions inside Microsoft or at outside gaming companies.
“We can confirm that after much consideration over the six week consultation period with Lionhead employees, we have reached the decision to close Lionhead Studios,” the company said in a statement.
When it was announced in March that development on Fable Legends was being ceased, Microsoft said that it wanted to focus its investment and development on franchises and games that fans find most exciting and want to play. At that time, it had said that consultations with Lionhead employees were underway on a possible closure of the studio.
Fable Legends was supposed to be launched this spring. Microsoft has already shut down the servers of Fable Legends last year so the game is not going to be revived even if the Lionhead team continues to work on games at Microsoft.