Subsidiary | |
Industry | Video game industry |
Founded | 1 August 1996 |
Founders |
Peter Molyneux Mark Webley Tim Rance Steve Jackson |
Defunct | 29 April 2016 |
Headquarters | London, England |
Key people
|
Keith Ranger Dolliver Benjamin Owen Orndorff |
Products |
Black & White series Fable series The Movies |
Owner | Microsoft |
Number of employees
|
~100 |
Parent | Microsoft Studios |
Website | lionhead |
Lionhead Studios Ltd. was 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 developer Bullfrog Productions, 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.
On 7 March 2016, Microsoft announced that it had proposed closing Lionhead Studios and that the planned game Fable Legends would be cancelled. On 29 April 2016, Lionhead Studios officially closed down.