Former Employee Says Lionhead Needed Microsoft Takeover

A former employee of Lionhead says that before publisher and console manufacturer Microsoft picked it up the studio was on its knees and close to going out of business.

James Duncan, who was an artist working on Fable 2 and 3 at Lionhead, told Eurogamer that, “Literally the day I started Microsoft said we’re buying you. It was a big time, a lot of upheaval in the company. When you’re bought by Microsoft it’s quite a big deal. Lionhead was on its knees. They desperately needed help, let’s put it that way. So really, when Microsoft came along it was jubilation. A lot of people were taking sighs of relief that Microsoft had come in as the savior.”

He says that Lionhead needed all the help that it could get and that it was not clear what the developer would have done if it was not for the takeover.

He also praised Lionhead leader Peter Molyneux, saying, “The thing you can never take away from the guy is he is a fantastic speaker and a great motivator, somebody who can gee the troops up, come in with an idea or something and really sell that idea and project it outwardly to guys like you.”

The developers ability to talk both to investors and to gamers and sell them on a game project was one of the main assets for Lionhead, especially during the creation of the Fable series.

Molyneux has long been known in the industry for his ability to create enthusiasm for features of upcoming projects but gamers have sometimes been disappointed to see that what the developer sold was not exactly what they got in the final game project.

At the moment Lionhead is working on another Fable game which will make significant use of the Kinect motion tracking system.