Now work to not repeat the same mistakes.
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Microsoft admitted that shutting down Lionhead Studios was one of its biggest failures.
Through IGN, in the sixth part of “Power On: The Story of Xbox”, a documentary about the best and worst moments of the Xbox brand, several prominent figures spoke about the purchase and eventual closure of one of the biggest studios in the United Kingdom.
Lionhead was founded in 1997 by Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley, Tim Rance and Steve Jackson, in 2006 it was bought by Xbox and in 2016 it was closed, as you probably still remember. Lionhead’s main objective was not to make the mistake made at Bullfrog, Molyneux’s former company, which got too big and unfocused.
Shanon Loftis, general manager of the global video game launch on Xbox at the time Lionhead went out of business, commented that “one of the biggest flaws we’ve learned from in the past was Lionhead.”
“I wish Lionhead was still a viable studio.”
“We bought Lionhead in 2006 and it closed in 2016,” said Sarah Bond, responsible for Game Creator Experiences and Ecosystem at Xbox. “A couple of years later we reflected on this experience. What did we learn and how not to make the same mistakes?”
Phil Spencer added, “You buy a studio for what they are today and our job is to help them speed up how they do what they do, not speed up what they do.”
Fable, one of the biggest names when you think of Lionhead, has been resurrected and will have a reboot on Xbox Series and PC, at the hands of Playground Games, prestigious studio recognized worldwide by Forza Horizon.
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