Lionhead Studios var väldigt tydliga med vilken typ av spel de ville satsa på efter Fable III. De ville naturligtvis utveckla Fable IV som enligt studions designchef hade "pitchats" som ett betydligt mer vuxet, mörkt, moget rollspels som utspelade sig i ett viktorianskt London inklusive allt vad könssjukdomar, råttpest, krut, sotsvarta gränder och glädjeflickor heter.
Microsoft hade dock andra planer och beställde ett onlinebaserat free-to-play-spel, Lionhead kunde naturligtvis bara göra en sak - lyda. 600 miljoner kronor spenderades på Fable Legends innan studion stängdes och hela projektet slungades ned i närmaste soptunna. Nu har folket som sparkades, folket som jobbade med Fable Legends under två år, pratat lite med Eurogamer om vad som egentligen hände.
"Then there was Microsoft. Throughout its development, Fable Legends was used as a poster child for various Microsoft initiatives. In January 2015, Fable Legends became a Windows 10 game as well as an Xbox One game after Microsoft decided to switch focus to cross-platform play ("We didn't know about Windows 10 when we started developing Fable Legends," reveals a source. "In fact we were going to be on Steam.") This caused Lionhead a massive headache. Cross-platform play with a PC version opened the game up to cheating.
During that period, Evolution got closed by Sony, and then within two weeks Codemasters picked them up. We were like, what the fuck? How did that happen so quickly? And it turned out the management team at Evolution had been given a heads-up months before as to Sony's intentions. Maybe if Microsoft had done similar it would have been a different story. Shit happens, unfortunately."
