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[Master X]

No! Fable

[3dfx_ownd_joo]

you guys remember that EA bought out bullfrog (kind of like lion head studios) after bullfrog made, the best games, like syndicate, populus, and MAGIC CARPET!! god i loved that game (and still do)

but as soon as EA got them, they pressured peter to produce crappy games for their yearly end of the financial year. so peter left, and started lion head studios, and now lion head studios are going to be bought out buy a VERY good games development studio.

Great move! too bad that EA own the rights to magic carpet, and syndicate tho....  

[Tobb555]

why doesnt MSFT buy square enix. I couldnt find anything about sony owning them. They are publicly traded, so it could be an easy buyout

[TeaTime]

They cant buy ubisoft, its the second largest publisher after EA (who owns 20% of ubisoft), and its larger then MGS, also the franch are kind of protectivr of ubisoft and will arange to keep it in franch hands

This post has been edited by TeaTime: Apr 7 2006, 02:51 AM

[Keshire]

Bad deal in my opinion. A lot of people were unsatisfied with the support for Fable, Black and White, and The Movies. All 3 have various issues running on a lot of peoples PC's that should be able to run it. As well as gamesaves being randomly currupted. And yet no patch, and a public announcement that there wouldn't be.

Not that I didn't like fable.
www.fableTLCmod.com

[KAGE360]

QUOTE(Tobb555 @ Apr 6 2006, 09:04 PM)

why doesnt MSFT buy square enix. I couldnt find anything about sony owning them. They are publicly traded, so it could be an easy buyout

sony owns either 15% or 30% of square, i dont remember how much but its rather minimal.  it would be entirely possible for MS to buy a bigger portion of square but they already tried that before and square was asking way way too much, much more then they are really worth in fact.  MS was also in talks with buying sega prior to the xbox1 launch (around same time talking to buy square) and the talks eventually just faded, nothing came of it but it never went through because of a price or japanese pride issue.

[miggidy]

QUOTE(Keshire @ Apr 7 2006, 08:36 AM)

Bad deal in my opinion. A lot of people were unsatisfied with the support for Fable, Black and White, and The Movies. All 3 have various issues running on a lot of peoples PC's that should be able to run it. As well as gamesaves being randomly currupted. And yet no patch, and a public announcement that there wouldn't be.

Not that I didn't like fable. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
www.fableTLCmod.com

Not a bad deal at all when those issues are all PC related.
Lionhead will develope for the Xbox 360 exclusively from now on (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)


As for everyone asking why doesn't M$ just buy this and that developer,
you can't buy a developing house if it's not up for sale.
Not only did M$ go after Sega, but how many of you knew that they threw an offer at Nintendo as well?
Actually Nintendo was shocked at the offer to begin with. They said it was a lot of money, but too bad they weren't up for sale. This was during the time that M$ decided to jump in the console market, before the Gamecube came out.
The way Nintendo sounded, if they're ever in trouble, they might just sell out instead of sticking to software developement and publishing.

This post has been edited by miggidy: Apr 7 2006, 10:33 PM

[twistedsymphony]

QUOTE(BasicAir @ Apr 6 2006, 04:03 PM)

...But could someone please list the prestigious games/franchises this new studio MS has acquired has developed, besides Fable or whatever was posted in the article summary on xbox-scene? (I'd assume a lot of PC franchises but I haven't been a PC gamer for 5 years).

Lion head's 3 big franchises have been

Black and White - You play God, you can create, destroy, be good or evil or whatever. They made it and a sequel for PC and I thought there were either thinking about or made it for Xbox 1 as well (don't know if it ever actually came out). Very cool game, very original, it was very well received and scored high in reviews. This is sort of where the whole Good vs Evil thing game from before Fable. It even has a sequel that was also really good but kind of fell under the radar.

Fable - you're familiar with this For PC and Xbox 1, they had the original version and "the lost chapters"

The Movies - their most recent game, I've never played it but it seems like the Sims in a movie studio, basically you can produce direct edit your own movies and manage the interactions between characters. It got pretty high marks in the few reviews I read but I think this game also kind of fell under the radar.


MGS didn't so much acquire these franchises as much as they now have Peter Molyneux, who is the brain child behind the above games as well as the highly revered ahead of their time games put out by bullfrog before EA bought them up and he left.

IMO this acquisition means nothing if Peter doesn't stay. The true potential comes in what new creative franchises Peter thinks up...

Though Black and White 3 and Fable 2 on the 360 would be SWEET  

[miggidy]

Peter was pretty thrilled about the acquisition:

QUOTE

"We could not be more excited about being part of MS Game Studios. They have long supported our creative vision, and this teamwork resulted in the hugely successful Fable franchise.
This acquisition gives Lionhead the stability and opportunity to focus on creating world-class next-generation titles. We are joining some of the most incredible game creators in the industry, the combined talent of which will truly take next-generation gaming to a new level."

Peter Molyneux

It looks like Peter was just looking for a solid foundation, stability that's all.
Game developement is a very very risky business, you're only as good as your last game.
We've seen many developement houses shut down over the past couple of years.
Some times you can dish out quality material, but that still doesn't garauntee that you'll see another day.
Just ask Tim Schafer....

Instead of worrying about their future, Peter can now focus on game developement

[KAGE360]

QUOTE(miggidy @ Apr 7 2006, 05:03 PM)

Not a bad deal at all when those issues are all PC related.
Lionhead will develope for the Xbox 360 exclusively from now on
As for everyone asking why doesn't M$ just buy this and that developer,
you can't buy a developing house if it's not up for sale.
Not only did M$ go after Sega, but how many of you knew that they threw an offer at Nintendo as well?
Actually Nintendo was shocked at the offer to begin with. They said it was a lot of money, but too bad they weren't up for sale. This was during the time that M$ decided to jump in the console market, before the Gamecube came out.
The way Nintendo sounded, if they're ever in trouble, they might just sell out instead of sticking to software developement and publishing.

very true, nintendo was lost to why MS would even make an offer to begin with.  if you read the book "opening the xbox" it tells in detail some of the companies that MS went after before launching the xbox.  

QUOTE(twistedsymphony @ Apr 7 2006, 05:09 PM)

Lion head's 3 big franchises have been

Black and White - You play God, you can create, destroy, be good or evil or whatever. They made it and a sequel for PC and I thought there were either thinking about or made it for Xbox 1 as well (don't know if it ever actually came out). Very cool game, very original, it was very well received and scored high in reviews. This is sort of where the whole Good vs Evil thing game from before Fable. It even has a sequel that was also really good but kind of fell under the radar.

Fable - you're familiar with this For PC and Xbox 1, they had the original version and "the lost chapters"

The Movies - their most recent game, I've never played it but it seems like the Sims in a movie studio, basically you can produce direct edit your own movies and manage the interactions between characters. It got pretty high marks in the few reviews I read but I think this game also kind of fell under the radar.
MGS didn't so much acquire these franchises as much as they now have Peter Molyneux, who is the brain child behind the above games as well as the highly revered ahead of their time games put out by bullfrog before EA bought them up and he left.

IMO this acquisition means nothing if Peter doesn't stay. The true potential comes in what new creative franchises Peter thinks up...

i agree 100%, even though he didnt come up with the idea behind fable, im sure his influence added a lot to the game

[m_hael]

I don't know anything specific I just know Peter & his friends... his reaction in public and his reaction in private will remain just that.

Something that probably wasn't mentioned throughout all of this is a that lionhead were going down, without a buyout they would be dead within a month or so... MS bought them for a pittance.

[Keshire]

QUOTE(m_hael @ Apr 7 2006, 05:09 PM)

I don't know anything specific I just know Peter & his friends... his reaction in public and his reaction in private will remain just that.

Something that probably wasn't mentioned throughout all of this is a that lionhead were going down, without a buyout they would be dead within a month or so... MS bought them for a pittance.

Lionhead also took Big Blue Box down with them. Good thing they got bought out. There's a lot of talented and smart people caught up in those 2 companies. I fully expect peter to Jump ship like he did when BullFrog was dieing. The man doesn't seem to like being tied down.

[Dalpura]

Rare, Ensemble, Bungie.. and now Lionhaed?

*dies*

MGS.

[Deftech]

QUOTE(KAGE360 @ Apr 7 2006, 03:46 PM)

sony owns either 15% or 30% of square, i dont remember how much but its rather minimal.  

Just for clarification, we covered this topic about a year ago here, and I remember digging up that its really only 7 or 8% that sony owns.

I'll do a search on google, if nothing comes up thats readily available to copy/paste, Im not wasting my time when it concerns these piles  

that was easy...

QUOTE

GameSpy: Sony owned a percentage of Square. Did Enix buy Sony out during the merger? How did you come to start making games for Nintendo systems?

Wada: Sony still owns a percentage; however, since the two corporations have merged, in terms of ratio of ownership, that share represents only about one-half of what it once did. It dropped from about 18 percent of the company to about 8 percent.

 

[unclepauly]

If Peter is this game god that everyone tries to make him out to be how come every ship he's heading keeps sinking? To me, that constitutes a failure.

This post has been edited by unclepauly: Apr 9 2006, 08:24 AM