Lionhead Studios, the studio known for its development of the Fable franchise, will be shutting its doors this friday. The studio was founded by Peter Molyneux and is currently in the hands of Microsoft.

Lionhead Studios first became known for its development of the Black & White franchise with the first game released in 2001 and a sequel, Black & White 2, released in 2005. The first Fable game was released in 2004 for the original Xbox. Due to the game's popularity the studio focused on the Fable franchise instead of working new Black & White games.

Fable: Legends was first announced in 2013 and was supposed to be an online Fable game. The game was scheduled to release for PC and Xbox One but in March of this year Microsoft announced that it would cease development, sparking rumors of the studio closing its doors. An official reason for the studio's closing has not been given though the lack of popularity of the recent Fable game is most likely part of the cause.