Another attempt by Microsoft to revive the once popular Fable series has failed. In 2016, the company stopped the development of the big-budget Fable Legends, and now it became known that the shareware card game Fable Fortune, another project, was closed. . In the official blog of the project that the servers will stop on March 4, 2020.
"After more than two years of thirty seasons and six characters, we are sad to announce that our adventures are coming to an end," the authors wrote.
The developers have already disabled the in-game store, however, users who still have boosters will be able to open them before the deadline. A little more than two years have passed since the official release of Fable Fortune: it took place on February 22, 2018. The game had been in early access on PC and Xbox One for six months prior.
Lionhead started working on Fable Fortune in late 2014, about a year and a half before it closed. In March 2016, Fable Legends was discontinued, and around the same time, Microsoft transferred the rights to develop Fable Fortune to an independent studio, Flaming Fowl, formed from ex-Lionhead employees. The team tried to raise funds to create a project through Kickstarter, but it did not arouse interest among gamers and the campaign had to be . However, other sources of funding were found, thanks to which the development was successfully completed.
Among the reasons for the failure of the Kickstarter campaign, the head of Flaming Fowl Craig Oman (Craig Oman) mentioned that the game belongs to a new genre for the series. However, the project had more serious problems. Journalists called Fable Fortune too similar to Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and noted that such a game would not survive in a highly competitive environment. There were still some original solutions in it, however, as reviewers noted, it lacked polish and gameplay depth. Rating on was 63β70 out of 100 points.
A few buyers were generally satisfied with the game: based on 118 reviews, it received a "very positive" rating in . Many praised the developers for the pleasant style, humor, varied content and unique mechanics. Gamers themselves believe that Fable Fortune failed due to the high price at the start, the lack of proper development and many unresolved technical problems.
The developers did not tell about the reasons for the closure, but the statistics speaks for itself. During the entire existence of the project, the maximum number of simultaneous players was only 272, and for the last six months this figure has varied between 5β10.
Fable 4 is rumored to be in development, but like last year Head of Xbox Phil Spencer (Phil Spencer), the game will be shown only when Microsoft is confident in its quality. It is assumed that Playground Games, known for the Forza Horizon series, is engaged in its creation.
In February, the servers of another fairly well-known KKI will stop working, , as well as the closure of the Fantasy Flight Interactive studio, which created .
Source: 3dnews.ru