When Microsoft shuttered veteran developer house Lionhead and cancelled Fable Legends earlier this year, it looked like the Fable franchise would be ending as well. Not so. Three veterans from the studio have formed their own company and have been given the go-ahead by Microsoft to develop a new game in the Fable universe. However, the only thing Microsoft has given is their blessing. The new company, named Flaming Fowl, is on its own to foot the bill and they’ve taken to Kickstarter to help get them the money they need.
The game is called Fable Fortune. It’s a free-to-play collectible card game that will feature a variety of game modes including co-op play, quests and specialized events. According to the Kickstarter page for the project, there will always be an event to participate in.
The Flaming Fowl folks had actually been working on the game before the end of Lionhead and wanted to continue to do so. But that involved getting the blessing of Microsoft, who owns the Fable franchise.
“We approached Microsoft – hoping for the best, prepared for a corporate hand to the face,” the Kickstarter page reads. “To our delight they were very open to the idea and agreed to grant us the licence for Fable Fortune. To be clear, we haven’t been granted a license to the entire Fable franchise, Microsoft have retained these rights, but we have the creative freedom to continue developing Fortune as an independent studio. We care deeply about Fable and it means the world to us that Microsoft have trusted us to continue using the IP.”
That’s where the Kickstarter comes in. The company says the game is actually almost done. They just need the extra cash to take it to completion. As of the publication of this article, they’ve raised just over $20K and are asking for more than $350K. The Kickstarter still has 28 days to go. Flaming Fowl is planning to release the game on PC and Xbox One initially and then develop an iOS version down the road.
