When Fable studio Lionhead closed in 2016, it seemed for a very brief moment that the Fable series was gone for good. But mere months later, Fable Fortune was announced, a card game based on the series that was in active development at the time of the studio's closure. Following that closure, a crew of former Lionhead talent formed Flaming Fowl Studios to keep it alive, and a year later, Fable Fortune launched into Early Access.
But the dream is over: in an update on the game's official website, Mediatonic and Flaming Fowl Studios confirm that the game's servers will close on March 4. In the meantime, the in-game store is disabled.
"After over two years, spanning 30 seasons with 6 Heroes, we sadly announce that our adventures are coming to an end," the statement reads.
Fable Fortune exited Early Access on February 22, at which point it transitioned to a free-to-play model. But despite the Fable name (which was licensed from Microsoft), the game seemed to fall almost immediately into obscurity – there are a lot of card games, after all, and even Valve can fail in this space.
When Lionhead Studios closed another in-development Fable game – Fable Legends – was cancelled outright, despite being the most heavily marketed. But in 2020 it's looking increasingly likely that we'll see a rebirth for the series, with rumours suggesting Playground Games (Forza) will develop Fable 4 in the format of an open world RPG.
You should definitely grab today's free Epic Store giveaway: this 'dicebuilder' might quietly be the best freebie of the season
7 years after unique puzzle brawler Battle Chef Brigade, its creators are back with another offbeat genre mash-up: 'People like card games, hopefully they like card games that have really good characters'
