7 Video Game Developers KILLED After Corporate Takeovers

The role-playing game (RPG) is typically thought of as a Japanese construct, given that Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy is the first property most would associate with the genre. Western RPGs have been growing in prevalence, however, with Obsidian’s The Elder Scrolls and CD Projekt’s The Witcher standing out in particular. RPG elements are also incorporated into so many action and adventure games that the line between the two genres is now very blurred.

Fable is a series that garnered significant acclaim upon its release in 2004. It evolved significantly over the course of its two sequels, which accelerated the development of the game world from a traditional fantasy setting to a more contemporary one undergoing an industrial revolution.

The franchise was created by Lionhead Studios, who were formed in the wake of Peter Molyneux leaving the aforementioned Bullfrog after its takeover by EA in 1997. Microsoft and Ubisoft battled to take over the company in 2006, with the former winning out.

Microsoft’s view on RPGs was that they should be about dragons (differing from Fable’s direction) and pushed for the inclusion of Kinect in Fable 3. A mass resignation about the management of the company occurred in 2012 and Microsoft then pushed for the next Fable to be a freemium online game.

This was ultimately cancelled before release and the studio closed shortly after. Fable IV remains ‘in development’ somewhere in the Microsoft machine, but without any of its original creative team attached.