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Lionhead Studios In Purchase Talks?

Posted by Zonk on Fri Feb 10, 2006 03:38 PM
from the molyneux-history-redux dept.
Businesses Entertainment Games
Lionhead Studios, best known for the Black and White series of games, may be in acquisition talks with Microsoft and Ubisoft From the Eurogamer article: "Of the two, Microsoft has the most history with the studio - the software giant published one of Lionhead's most successful titles to date, Fable, and is believed to be working with the firm on a next-generation sequel to the game for Xbox 360. Credence is also lent to Microsoft's involvement in the deal by the close relationship Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux has enjoyed with the firm and its top executives since the launch of the Xbox, with the well-known designer often appearing to sing the praises of the Xbox platform in public." Gamespot reports further on the subject, stating that while it's certainly plausible, it's not official yet.
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[+] Molyneux Rumour Control 24 comments
Gamespot has an article up looking at some of the current rumours swirling around designer Peter Molyneux. Best known for the Black and White series, Molyneux's Lionhead studio is heavily favoured to be the next acquisition target for Microsoft. He canceled a GDC session with no notice on Friday (one I was hoping to go to, I might add), and there's been much speculation since last week. From the article: "Over the subsequent month, the rumors festered. On March 3, Lionhead laid off between 50 and 100 people, and reduced its number of projects-in-development from three to two--a Black & White 2 expansion and a Fable sequel. Today, the floodgates of speculation re-opened, when Molyneux's session at the 2006 Game Developers Conference in San Jose was summarily canceled."
[+] Microsoft Buys Lionhead Studios 73 comments
Grench writes "The BBC has an article on Microsoft's purchase of Lionhead Studios. They focus in particular on Peter Molyneux, and the kind of talents and expertise that he can bring to Microsoft's future gaming efforts. A sequel to Fable was mentioned as a probable endeavor." From the article: "Some of the giants of the games industry, such as Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, were reported to have been interested in acquiring Lionhead. But Microsoft has emerged as the victor, adding the studio to its roster of British gaming talent. In 2002, it acquired developers Rare in a $375m deal."
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Lionhead Studios In Purchase Talks? 20 Comments More /

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  • Because that worked so well with Bullfrog, although it's slightly encouraging to see that Lionhead isn't profiting from what they've put out in the last few months. Fable was acceptable but B&W 2 was just utter tripe.

  • B&W2 Mac version? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ZachPruckowski (918562) <zachary.pruckowski@gmail.com> on Friday February 10 2006, @03:47PM (#14689990)
    I heard there is a Mac version of Black and White 2 coming. Would being bought by MS kill that? Granted, it's a port by another company, but the risk remains, right?
    • They still port Age of series for the Mac, I don't see how this would be any different.

    • I heard there is a Mac version of Black and White 2 coming. Would being bought by MS kill that? Granted, it's a port by another company, but the risk remains, right?

      They had a playable alpha release of Halo on the mac at macworld in 1999 before MS bought Bungie. In 2001 they released the x-box version. It was not until 2003, four years later, that Halo was finally released for the mac. That is to say, it took them four years to go from a working version to a production version on what used to be their p

      • To be fair, they also killed the PC release of Halo along with the Mac version. It's assumed that MS arranged that to make Halo the killer app to drive XBOX sales.

        I can remember as late as mid-2000 looking at demo videos of Halo at LAN parties and talking about all the upgrades some of the guys would have to make to run it. Then MS bought Bungie, Halo for XBOX was announced, and Halo for anything else went away.

        • Then MS bought Bungie, Halo for XBOX was announced, and Halo for anything else went away.

          Yes, then Halo for PC [fileplanet.com] came back, probably because of all the people who (like me) said "I'll buy this crap for PC but there's no way I'll play an FPS with a gamepad."

    • Risk? What risk? MS would license out the development to a Mac porting company and earn income from the sales. Which is what they've done before.
      You do know Microsoft makes software for the Macintosh right?
      The only risk I can think of would be if they were to port there server applications to OS X - that will never happen.
  • Worse, might this perhaps kill the chance of a multiplayer/skirmish patch?

  • Past history... (Score:4, Informative)

    by oberondarksoul (723118) on Friday February 10 2006, @06:43PM (#14691366) Homepage
    If I remember correctly, Peter Molyneux founded Lionhead after leaving Bullfrog simply because he couldn't stand the corporatism that selling Bullfrog to EA had presented. If it was bad enough for him to leave the first company he founded, I'm not sure he'd make the same mistake twice.

  • I can see through this ploy... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Excelsior (164338) on Friday February 10 2006, @06:54PM (#14691432)
    After patenting ones and zeros [theonion.com] Microsoft wants control of black and white, too! It's all part of a devious plan to control the universe.

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