Lionhead Studios
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Interactive entertainment Computer and video games |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Founder | Peter Molyneux Mark Webley Tim Rance Steve Jackson |
| Headquarters | Guildford, Surrey, UK |
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Key people
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Stuart Whyte (Studio Director) Louise Murray (Production Director) Emmi Kuusikko (Business and Strategy Director) |
| Products | Black & White series Fable series The Movies |
| Owner | Microsoft |
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Number of employees
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~100 |
| Parent | Independent (1996–2006) Microsoft Studios (2006–present) |
| Website | lionhead |
Lionhead Studios is a British video game developer, formerly led by Peter Molyneux. It was acquired by Microsoft Studios in April 2006. Lionhead started as a breakaway from the developer Bullfrog, which was also founded by Molyneux. Lionhead's first game was Black & White, a god game with elements of artificial life and strategy games. Black & White was published by Electronic Arts in 2001. Lionhead Studios is named after Mark Webley's hamster, which died not long after the naming of the studio.
Black and White was followed up with the release of an expansion pack named Black & White: Creature Isle. Lionhead then released the popular Fable, from satellite developer Big Blue Box. In 2005, Lionhead released The Movies and Black & White 2. On 6 April 2006, it was announced that Lionhead Studios was to be purchased by Microsoft. Their most recent game to be released is the HD remake of Fable, Fable Anniversary, which was released on 4 February 2014.
Milo and Kate was being developed for Kinect, though speculation arose concerning whether it was actually a game or a tech demo. Production has since been halted.
Contents
Corporate structure
For a period of three years, Lionhead established satellite companies, including Big Blue Box Studios (developers of Fable), Intrepid Games (developers of B.C., since suspended due to a massive overrun) and Black & White Studios (who have taken responsibility for the continuation of the Black & White series). Lionhead proper was working on three games: Fable, B&W2 and The Movies.
The "satellite" system has ceased to exist in any meaningful form since mid-2004, however, with Big Blue Box having been more or less integrated into the main company, and Intrepid essentially having been disbanded.
Lionhead was a privately held company until October 2004 (shortly before the suspension of B.C.) when a consortium of investors, including Ingenious Ventures, IDG Ventures Europe, and technology firm Add Partners, made a significant investment into the developer. This at a time when the company was in severe financial straits, as they had overrun development on two projects, Black & White 2 and Fable, and also canceled B.C. and a project with Jeff Minter named Unity.
Between September 2005 and April 2006, Lionhead successfully released two titles, Black & White 2 and The Movies, as well as an updated version of Fable (entitled Fable: The Lost Chapters). These titles did not achieve a massive impact in sales, and this left the company vulnerable to a takeover bid.
In April 2006 Lionhead Studios was acquired by Microsoft, signalling the end of independent development, and a focus on Microsoft's proprietary gaming platforms. Lionhead is a fairly independent part of Microsoft Studios, which has also acquired Rare Ltd. and Bungie Studios (Bungie Studios became an independent studio in late 2007, shortly after the release of Halo 3).
Delays
Lionhead has received a lot of media attention for delays to their games, in part due to the large amount of publicity and hype generated for their games. Various reports on this indicate a company tendency to re-design games mid-development and a tendency toward over-ambition, though few reports are official. The company is always on the cutting edge of developing new technology[citation needed], especially in the area of AI, which adds considerably to their development schedules[citation needed]. Peter Molyneux, who often refers to himself as either the lead designer or creative director of Lionhead, often promises specific release dates early on in the development of his titles[citation needed]. This causes particular problems and disappointment among fans as many release dates are pushed back, sometimes more than once. Black & White missed several deadlines until it was finally released in 2001. A similar problem occurred with the release of The Movies which was intended for a 2004 release date but was eventually delayed to 2005.
Criticism of pre-release changes
Leading up to several Lionhead Studio game releases, Peter Molyneux's enthusiasm for talking openly about the development and design process of his games caused outcry online when certain features did not make it or were changed during development. He made a rule that he would not talk about game mechanics unless he could show them in game[1] or present certain ideas as prototypes and/or experiments.[2]
Several products such as Black and White 2 and Fable had features changed or lacking in the final product.
Peter Molyneux said the following on the issue:
After Fable, there was a pretty dark time where people looked at the game and compared it with what I said in the press, and they felt cheated. I realised that we just couldn't keep on doing that. But that was very much a reflection of how we worked, because what I was talking about in the press was what we were experimenting with at that moment, and a lot of those experiments would sort of come out as you were making the game. So I'd be talking about trees growing, and then we'd cut trees growing, and people would, of course, feel cheated. So I made a rule: I will not talk about any concrete mechanics unless I can actually show you them in game. I'll talk about our ambitions to make the best role-playing game of all time, but if you see Fable 2 press you'll see that I talked about stuff as I demoed it. People understandably get enormously upset about it—it's like seeing a trailer for a film and seeing Batman die, but then he doesn't die in the film; it would just be wrong. So I think a lot of what we do is realise what we’ve done wrong and work to try and make that right. It's far better than thinking that we get things right all the time.[1]
Games
Cancelled
- Unity (GameCube)
- BC (Xbox)
- Black & White: Titan (Xbox, PlayStation 2)
- Black & White (PlayStation, Dreamcast)
- InkQuest[5]
- Black & White 3 (PC)
- The Movies (GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2)
- Milo & Kate (Xbox 360 Kinect)
- Fable II (PC)[citation needed]
Peter Molyneux also discussed Justice and Survivor during an IGN interview. These projects never made it out of the concept stage.[6]
Awards
- BAFTA Awards
- (2001) Nominated—British Academy Awards for "Games Networked" / Black & White
- (2001) Nominated—British Academy Awards for "Best Original Score" / Black & White
- (2001) Winner—British Academy Awards for "Interactivity" / Black & White
- (2001) Nominated—British Academy Awards for "Technical Innovation" / Black & White
- (2001) Nominated—British Academy Awards for "Games PC" / Black & White
- (2001) Nominated—British Academy Awards for "Music" / Black & White
- (2001) Nominated—British Academy Awards for "Moving Images" / Black & White
- (2004) Nominated —British Academy Awards for "Best Original Score" / Fable
- (2005) Winner—British Academy Awards for "Simulation" / The Movies
- (2006) Nominated —British Academy Awards for "Best Original Score" / The Movies
- (2009) Winner—British Academy Awards for "Action and Adventure" / Fable II
- (2009) Nominated—British Academy Awards for "Best Game" / Fable II
- (2009) Nominated—British Academy Awards for "Best Original Score" / Fable II
- (2009) Nominated—British Academy Awards for "Story and Character" / Fable II
- (2009) Nominated—British Academy Awards for "Technical Achievement" / Fable II
- (2011) Nominated—British Academy Awards for "Best Original Score" / Fable III
- Interactive Achievement Awards
- (2004) Peter Molyneux inducted into AIAS "Hall of Fame”
- (2004) Winner for "Best Original Score" / Fable
- (2005) Finalist—Outstanding Achievement in "Character / Story Development" / Fable
- (2005) Finalist—Outstanding Achievement in "Original Music Composition" / Fable
- (2005) Winner—Play Magazine Overall Game of the Year / Fable
- (2009) Finalist—Outstanding Achievement in "Art Direction" / Fable II
- (2009) Finalist—Outstanding Achievement in "Original Story" / Fable II
- (2009) Finalist—Outstanding Achievement in "Game Design" / Fable II
- (2009) Nominee for "Best Original Score" / Fable II
- (2009) Finalist—Outstanding Achievement in "Game Play Engineering" / Fable II
- (2009) Finalist—Role Playing Game of the Year / Fable II
- Others
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-21-yes-lionhead-is-working-on-something-that-isnt-fable-esque
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External links
- Use dmy dates from November 2015
- Articles with unsourced statements from January 2014
- Articles with unsourced statements from August 2013
- Official website not in Wikidata
- First-party video game developers
- Lionhead Studios
- Microsoft subsidiaries
- Video game companies of the United Kingdom
- Video game development companies
- 1996 establishments in the United Kingdom
- Companies established in 1996
- Companies based in Guildford
