Great news IMO. Now Lionhead can stay focused on doing what it does best...making innovative games. MS can take care of the publishing and budgeting. Lionhead has cancelled far too many games in the last few years (namely BC) so perhaps this move will work out for them.
Of the half dozen or so games Lionhead have kicked out, I've played Black and White/2 and Fable, and not been particularly impressed with any of them. Huge concepts with average implementation... it seems like Molyneux always aims for goals that simply aren't achievable. I don't think I'd enjoy the games that much even if masses more content was included, gameplay that's too non-linear just frustrates me.
That seems to be the trend in general with software companies these days. Lots of 'selling out' going on. Sign of the times.
No one around here should be shocked by this statement, this deal has been in the works for months. I'm hoping to see the same sort of relationship that EA has with Criterion. Criterion's games were pretty good before EA was funding them, but after the buyout, they finally had the cash to make the games they wanted.
He jumped ship when Bullfrog was sold to EA. The good thing about Lionhead was their satellite developer system, but I can't see that lasting now Microsoft have got hold of them. All these British developers getting bought up by American companies... I see it as a bad thing and British games are losing some of their identity in the push to make them appeal to a broader market (i.e. America). It's understandable from a Publisher's point of view, but why even buy the developers if you plan to change their output? I don't like this trend at all.
Well, no more Lionhead games for me I think, successful used rather then playable or entertaining. We can clearly see where his money grabbings lie.
Well he had to lay off quite a few workers and with Black and White 2 & The Movies not doing so well this deal seems pretty much inevitable. Fable was far to short for what it was meant to be, so maybe a second could be good? Black & White had some truly imaginative ideas and maybe with the backing of MS money we could get some amazing titles.
I think his early works, namely Dungeon Keeper (number one) was a very addictive strategy game. Black and white was a nice vision, but it got boring along the way. Simple addictions are better than linear ones that span miles, this is clearly illustrated by examples of games such as Tetris. You might not think it's epic, but I can bet money that it has kept every single one of you (hopefully) comming back for more compared to any other epic game, even the Zelda games
I think Microsoft should have bought somebody that WASN'T making games exclusively for their consoles...
You never know, maybe a Lionhead employee that isn't overly impressed by this news will do the right thing and release the PSone and DC versions of BnW. Ok then, so who do you all reckon M$ are gonna buy next?
You've got to be kidding, right? Out of all of the game companies out there, microsoft has to be the one with the least accountability of their protos. Nintendo protos? Never. Sega protos? Never. How about Gran Turismo protos? Nope. Halo protos? I know dozens of people who have them. Hell, even i have one. If anything, i think this increases the chances of you seeing black and white. Out of curiosity, have you ever tried contacting lionhead and see if they have anything left from the project? Or at least see if they'll give you a press kit?
