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. Corporate structure
For a period of three years, Lionhead established satellite companies,
including Big Blue Box Studios, Intrepid Games and Black & White Studios.
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 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.
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. 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, especially in the area of AI, which adds considerably to their
development schedules. 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. 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 or present certain ideas as prototypes
and/or experiments. 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.
Games = Cancelled =
Unity BC
Black & White: Titan Black & White
InkQuest Black & White 3
The Movies Milo & Kate
Fable II Peter Molyneux also discussed Justice
and Survivor during an IGN interview. These projects never made it out of the
concept stage. 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
(2004) Winner—1UP Awards Best of 2004 "Best RPG" / Fable
(2004) Winner—IGN.com "Best Original Score" / Fable
(2008) Winner—PETA's Annual Proggy Awards "Most Animal-Friendly Video Game"
/ Fable II (2009) Winner—IGN.com "Best Original
Score" / Fable II References
External links Official website