One highly anticipated game that players will never see is Fable 4, thanks to Microsoft closing down Lionhead Studios forever.
One of Lionhead's ex-developers recently released details about the pitch for the fourth game in the Fable franchise, and it sounds so good that many Fable fans will probably want to cry.
John McCormack, who served as an art director for Lionhead, told Eurogamer that Fable 4 would be a darker title that would update the town of Bowerstone into a massive London-style city, resembling a "late Victorian proper far-out Jules Verne sh-t" kind of place. The plan was to develop the game with Unreal Engine 4 and create a story set in the industrial age, something almost akin to steampunk, with flying machines and similar technology.
Fable 4 would also take a cue from TV show Penny Dreadful in including some familiar figures of that time period in a new way. The title would have featured Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, along with Jack the Ripper as a Balverine in disguise.
"And that was going to be Fable 4, and it would be darker and grittier," McCormack said. "And because it was R-rated it would have the prostitutes and the humor. I was like, man, this is going to be f---ing brilliant, and everybody was really into it."
But not everybody wasn't really into it: Microsoft decided not to run with the idea. That might leave Fable fans scratching their heads at the idiocy of such a decision, but Microsoft wanted to focus Lionhead on making games as a service. Because of that decision, McCormack chose to leave Lionhead to start his own development company.
After that, Microsoft had Lionhead work on Project Opal, which eventually became Fable Legends, which Microsoft canceled after deciding to close Lionhead Studios forever. Rumors suggest that Lionhead almost got a second chance, thanks to offers from other publishers, but Microsoft refused to give up the rights to Fable, which was a deal-breaker.
Now, sadly, Lionhead Studios is no more and the awesome concept of Fable 4 will never come to fruition. In the end, it's the gamers who lose the most.
RIP, Lionhead Studios, and thanks for the memories.
