24 Facts About Lionhead Studios

Lionhead Studios Limited was a British video game developer founded in July 1997 by Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley, Tim Rance, and Steve Jackson.

Lionhead Studios started as a breakaway from developer Bullfrog Productions, which was founded by Molyneux.

Lionhead Studios is named after Webley's hamster, which died not long after the naming of the studio, as a result of which the studio was very briefly renamed to Redeye Studios.

Many Lionhead Studios developers left around this time, including co-founder Jackson and several developers who left to found Media Molecule.

Lionhead Studios is the second Bullfrog break-off group, after Mucky Foot Productions .

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Lionhead Studios said that Lionhead would develop only one game at a time.

Early Lionhead Studios employees included Demis Hassabis, Mark Healey, and Alex Evans.

Name Lionhead Studios came from Webley's pet hamster, who had died the week prior to the foundation.

Lionhead Studios had originally intended to make their first public appearance at the E3 trade show in May 1997.

Big Blue Box Lionhead Studios was founded in July 1998 by Ian Lovett and Simon and Dene Carter, because of a desire to leave Electronic Arts and "the sadly ravaged corpse of Bullfrog it had left behind".

Lionhead Studios then went for initial public offering, which Molyneux said was "The most stupid thing that ever happened" because it meant having to expand quickly and develop more games.

Lionhead Studios was nominated for the 2002 Golden Joystick Awards British Developer of the Year award.

Lionhead Studios were concerned with securing the company's future and protecting jobs and spent "months" preparing for the acquisition.

Lionhead Studios claimed Lionhead were trying to cheat him out of money he was owed.

Microsoft purchased a lease that enabled Lionhead Studios to expand to multiple floors, a canteen, and an office revamp.

Lionhead Studios and Microsoft conflicted over the game's marketing: Microsoft believed that role-playing games were about dragons and wanted to market the game as such, despite Lionhead Studios's insistence that the game was "a Monty Python-esque comedy".

Six months before its release, Lionhead Studios attempted to integrate Kinect into the game, but failed.

Lionhead Studios was joined by Paul McLaughlin, who was Lionhead's head of art.

Lionhead Studios said that after 12 years, everyone was "tired" of the Fable series.

Lionhead Studios became more professional and organised according to some staff.

Around this time, Microsoft insisted that Lionhead Studios make a games as a service Fable game to reinvigorate interest in the series or face closure.

Lionhead Studios encountered difficulty in this project, Fable Legends, because they had not done anything like it before.

The closure came as a shock to some staff, who had suspected Microsoft were concerned but did not think Lionhead Studios would be shut down: it was thought that the worst-case scenario would be that Fable Legendss assets would be used for Fable IV.

One Lionhead Studios developer, Charlton Edwards, said there was a giveaway and he received some of the "trophies".