It has been nearly two months since Microsoft announced it was considering closure of Fable developer Lionhead. After a consultation period that resulted in no potential buyers or other solutions, the studio is closing today.

Employees have been sharing memories and their farewells to the 20-year-old developer that brought to life Fable, Black & White, and The Movies. The image above was tweeted by studio director Stuart Whyte. 

Lionhead was most recently working on Fable Legends, a free-to-play multiplayer game that pit one player as the villain working to confound a team of four heroes. The title never made it into open beta, despite being shown at numerous events and a closed beta since its announcement at Gamescom 2013.

In a statement made to Eurogamer, Microsoft confirmed the closure offering kind words for the team. “We can confirm that after much consideration over the six week consultation period with Lionhead employees, we have reached the decision to close Lionhead Studios,” the publisher told the site. “We have nothing but heart-felt thanks for the team at Lionhead for their significant contributions to Xbox and the games industry.”

Since the announcement regarding the potential closure, others have stepped up to help Lionhead employees find new work. Among them was Sony, which conducted a job fair in Guildford for the employees, where a number of Sony’s European studios were present.

[Source: Stuart Whyte on Twitter, Eurogamer]

Our Take
Our thoughts are with those affected. It’s a tragedy that Lionhead was left to make a downloadable side game (Fable Heroes) and a Kinect title (Fable: The Journey) and not focus on a core game in the series for Xbox One. This seems like a poor use of a talented team that could have done much for the Xbox One library.