Microsoft: "Lionhead-behandlingen var en af vores største fejltagelser"

Studiet Lionhead cementerede deres stærke ry i branchen med Fable-serien, men efter tre spil i den serie, så blev de sat til både at udforske Kinect-hardwaren med Fable: The Journey, og efter det var det det asymmetriske multiplayer-spil Fable Legends, som faktisk aldrig blev lanceret.

Det var en kombination af ringe ledelse, dårlige beslutninger og et kantet samarbejde, som gjorde at studiet i sidste ende lukkede. I den nyeste Xbox 20th Anniversary-dokumentarserie ved navn "Power On", så kalder Shannon Loftis fra Xbox det "deres største fejltagelse":

"One of the biggest missteps that we learned from in the past was Lionhead. We had already published Fable 1, and it was a hit... People wanted more, and so we bought Lionhead. Those were good years. But after Fable 2, Kinect came along and the Fable-Kinect marriage just never really took. And then Fable: The Journey was a passion project for a lot of people, but I think it deviated pretty significantly from the pillars of what made Fable 1 and 2 so popular."

Desuden siger Phil Spencer, at de har lært noget af Lionhead-sagen, og at de i dag er bedre til at bestyre deres studier takket være den oplevelse:

"You acquire a studio for what they're great at now, and your job is to help them accelerate how they do what they do, not them accelerate what you do."