Fable Legends has been officially cancelled with the fate of Lionhead Studios currently at stake, as announced by Hanno Lemke, General Manager of Microsoft Studios Europe, on Xbox Wire.
After much consideration we have decided to cease development on Fable Legends, and are in discussions with employees about the proposed closure of Lionhead Studios in the UK.
Lionhead Studios' Fable Legends has been floundering in development, having started production in mid-2012, and has been previewed by GameRevolution two times in the last two years. It was scheduled to release in late 2015, but its open beta was pushed to this spring. Since Molyneux's departure from Lionhead Studios, the Fable franchise had several disappointments with Fable Heroes and, notably, Fable: The Journey.
Along with the closure of Press Play Studios in Denmark and the cancellation of the studio's Project Knoxville, Microsoft Studios stated that this tough decision was made despite Lionhead's past success with the Fable series and Press Play's creativity with Kalimba and Max: The Curse of Brotherhood.
Lemke reinforced Microsoft's commitment to development in Europe, pivoting to Remedy's Quantum Break, Rare's Sea of Thieves, and Moon Studios' Ori and the Blind Forest.
