Grim news out of Europe this morning, as Microsoft announced that the company has canceled two in-development projects, and begun the process of shuttering the studios attached to those projects.

One of those developers is Lionhead Studios, the company co-founded by Peter Molyneux in 2001, best known for the Black & White and Fable franchises. The team's (formerly) current project, Fable Legends, was a 4-v-1 free-to-play game that had been in development since 2012. According to the announcement blog post by Microsoft Studios Europe General Manager Hanno Lemke, the company has begun discussions with the team at Lionhead about closing the studio entirely.

In addition to Lionhead, Danish studio Press Play, creators of Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and Kalimba, has officially been closed. Its in-development project, a multiplayer survival game code-named Project Knoxville, was actually chosen among three game pitches via a fan vote last year.

Lemke's announcement goes on to mention that Microsoft is "committed to working closely with those affected by today’s news to find them new opportunities at Xbox, or partnering with the broader development community to help place them in jobs elsewhere in the games industry should they desire."

No part of this news is anything but terrible, but the possibility of seeing an old UK development stalwart like Lionhead disappear entirely is especially miserable. Here's hoping everyone affected by today's news finds new, gainful employment quickly.

wow. fable legends has always seems... misguided, i guess. but i've played some of that game so i always assumed it would at least be released

Bugger.

Hearts out to all employees at Lionhead and Press Play studios. Shame we'll now never see a proper numbered Fable sequel.

Even though I never was a fan of the Fable series I'll still pour one out for Lionhead Studios.

The studio hasn't released a major game in the past 6 years and Fable Legends has been in development seemingly forever. I was cold on that when it was announced but after getting to actually play it I was excited to see what the final game would be like. Not to mention they were using UE4 to make a beautiful, colorful game.

Still, I would have played the crap out of true Fable 4.

This sucks...

With the recent announcement that the Xbox One and Windows 10 would become more integrated into one development environment it really makes you think how many other projects/studios will be closed or shuttered as Microsoft tries to find IP that has legs with both audiences as opposed to PC vs. Xbox.

Pour one out for the talented group at Lionhead Studios that hasn't had much real output since, hell 2010 (Fable III).

Man, talk about an ignoble end for Lionhead.

Wow crazy, Lionhead especially has been big in my gaming life. I love the Black & White games and the Fable series I've mostly always enjoyed. Sad to see them go.

Wow, that sucks. Granted, the last good Lionhead game was Fable II in like 08 or 09 and the Black & White games were interesting if not particularly great, but I was hoping we'd still get a Fable IV some day.

Fable Legends had been in development for 4 years!?

Let's hope everyone finds gainful employment soon.

I'd never heard of Press Play; I'll have to look into their stuff.

@homelessbird: Kalimba is a lot of fun, especially the coop mode.

That's a huge bummer. I wasn't expecting Fable Legends to be a better Fable II, but that series is really special. Sad to see it go, best of luck to all at Lionhead.

Honestly, I don't know how anyone can look at this and Spencer's recent comments and not come to the conclusion that Microsoft is looking to at the very least disengage from the traditional console market. I really don't believe there will be another console from Microsoft.

Project Knoxville, eh?

Yeah I hope it goes well for everyone involved.

I haven't been keeping up with Fable or Lionhead but man. I remember how much I anticipated Black & White back in the day, I think honestly I've never been as anxious for a game to be released before or after that. It was pretty great. I really liked the first Fable as well.

Get the Lionhead people to kickstart a spiritual successor to Fable. I'd play that.

Fable Legends looked terrible, but i have a love for the franchise as a whole. And i hope it makes a comeback. It would be the reason to buy an Xbox, for me.

Well there goes my dream of a modern The Movies.

poor chicken chaser :(

I actually really enjoyed Max: The Curse of Brotherhood. Guess we probably won't see another sequel from that series.

That's a shame. Fable 2 was one of my favorite games from last generation. I'm not familiar with the other studio, but good luck to everyone displaced by this.

Man that's a bummer. The last games I liked from LHS were the first fable and some ideas from both B&W1 and B&W2. I really wanted a single good full fledged B&W game but 2 fell flat on so many notes aside from the better city building that it kind of killed the momentum. I still replay both of those every few years... rip lionhead.

I'm not familiar with Press Play at all unfortunately but hopefully both of their employees make it out ok.

Poor Lionhead, they made 1 bad game then got put on trash.

Microsoft seems to be moving out of the traditional game market. Its going to be sad to see the end of the 3 console paradigm, Hopefully when that happens Nintendo or the PC steps up to compete with Sony.

Really sad. I played some Fable Legends Beta. That game was not good in the state that it was. But, the artistic direction, the environment desisn and the graphics were stunning.

They never got the chance to make a proper Fable sequel. Instead somebody thought it was a good idea to rush Fable 3 out before it was ready, make a Kinect (not on rails) experience and have this freaking Evolve-like thing that Fable Legends was..

Microsoft really deserves the relatively low sales of their freaking console.

I really hope that somewhere down the line some of these people get to work for a better company.

This doesn't really come as a huge blow to me since we've barely seen anything out of that studio and the last couple of things they did do weren't that great in my opinion. Still weird to see them go. Fable 1 was one of my favourite games of that generation and I always held out a little hope they could make a game that great again. At least sounds like MS is helping these people out in this bad time and I hope the best for everyone there. I get the sad feeling I'm going to be saying something similar in a couple of months about Harmonix.

This is awful news for the company and all those who work there. Lionhead have produced some decent stuff over the years. I hope that Microsoft and Xbox really are as committed to finding these people jobs as they say in their statement.

I can kind of understand the decision, as it relates to Legends though.

On the strength of the weak game experience they had as a playable thing at EGX... and on the absolute bomber that was Evolve, it is clear that there's almost no appetite for this kind of a title.

It took me a second to remember what Fable Legends was, but I don't remember it looking all that good when they showed it off at E3 like two or three years ago (I assume they must've had betas or something, right?) Still a huge bummer in regards to Lionhead. Fable 2 was a good game.

Congratulations to Microsoft on focus-grouping, gutting and closing yet another brilliant studio. And for making a complete mess of the Xbox name after it had basically figured console gaming out.

I agree the string of these news stories can easily lead one to think something big is up within the xbox division of the company, like they are being pushed away from investing in the traditional console market. But at the same time Fable Legends was supposed to be one of those titles that was supposed to target both PC and Xbox players, especially with it being a Win10/Xbox crossplay title.

Well sad to see Lionhead go, but man Fable was a huge disappointment imo. Really dislike that franchise. Kinda missing some Black and White though. Would have like to see some god games from them again, but dont think that was ever going to happen.

Beginning of the end for the Xbox console.

Fable Legends looked godawful since the first reveal.

Its a bit sad about Lionhead closing. I really used to like Fable a lot.

I agree, I think Fable II was really great and I loved the Fable aesthetic. I really liked the clothing especially, with all those tri-corner hats and big cuffed jackets and gloves. It's a real shame that Fable isn't continuing, but I honestly never was that interested in Legends.

It's just sad that such a prestigious studio, of the last generation especially, is being shuttered and people are losing their jobs.

Yes! I don't think I've ever really cared for how my character looked in any game but Fable II.

@billyok said:

Who's to say Fable Legends was being managed properly and the game stood out from others? Evolve, a game within the 4 v 1 multiplayer genre, didn't exactly set the world on fire last year.

If Fable Legends wasn't doing enough to differentiate itself from Evolve, was over-budget and didn't really carry the already-rubbish "Fable" name out of the dirt I can't see any reason why this project wouldn't be scrapped.

Man Lionhead made some great games, that's a bummer

lol same to you

I've really loved some Lionhead games over the years. Me and my big brother used to have a lot of fun making movies in The Movies and dubbing them over with our juvenile humour :-D

Also loved Black & White and the Fable games.

Thanks for the memories Lionhead. I salute you!

I was in the Fable Legends Beta and thought there was a decent core there, I didn't play it enough to really dig deep and know whether or not the full product was great but what I played seemed totally fine.

I want my Movies sequel damn it!

My issue in my original comment centers around the existence of Fable Legends at all. I'm not mad it got scrapped -- I'm disappointed it was ever conceived. I doubt it was being managed properly because I doubt anyone responsible for Lionhead's original incarnation, as a developer of really weird and distinctive games, was still around to give a crap about a focus-grouped watering down of an already watered-down franchise. What happened to Lionhead was a shame long before what happened today. That studio has been a shadow of its original self for years.

I'm going to miss Lionhead. Even though they get a bad rap sometimes for over promising, they always made a quality game that both looks and sounds unique. I've been in the closed beta of Fable Legends for over a year now and have really liked it. I'm sad I will never be able to play it with my friends. I'm very sad to hear we will probably never get a game with that amazing art style again.

This really sucks. Best wishes to all those affected by the closure, hopefully they will find good jobs elsewhere (or make a new studio to work on new ideas).

@schmid: I'll be sure to check it out!

Lionhead was badly managed; this is 100% on Microsoft. Fable 3 sold very well and not just in its first month so the word of mouth couldn't have been that bad. The next games were a Kinect game, beat em up, and then Legends.

Legends seems like a tough development task, especially when they hadn't even done multiplayer. Stick with what you know, make it more of an RPG and it would have continued to be a huge franchise.

I though fable legends was either released or close to release. This seems crazy.

As much fun as I had with Black & White, I've always found Lionheads games to be kind of lacking, so this isn't hugely surprising to me. I just hope the people there have an easy time finding new jobs.

Not super surprising.