Original Fable Creators Leave Lionhead Studios

In what has to be a major blow to the team behind the Fable series, original creators Simon Carter and his brother Dene (you know, the Normanomicon pair) have left Lionhead Studios to pursue “new opportunities”. If you’re a long-time PC gamer, you’ll also fondly remember these guys from their contributions to many of Bullfrog’s greatest titles – Magic Carpet, Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper, and Populous, to name a few:

Simon Carter, co-founder of the Lionhead satellite Big Blue Box which originally created the Fable franchise, left his position last month and is pursing new opportunities with his brother Dene Carter. Both were considered senior management at Lionhead Studios.

“The decision to leave Lionhead was a very difficult one,” Simon Carter told GamesIndustry.biz. “After initiating the franchise over a decade ago I still love the world of Fable, and I’m very proud of what Big Blue Box and Lionhead achieved. I’m leaving behind some very good friends and some of the best developers in the industry, and I couldn’t have chosen a better group of people to spend the last ten years with.

“At the same time the games industry is an exciting place at the moment, and there are lots of new opportunities to pursue,” he added. “Everything is changing: consumer play habits, the relationship between the player and the developer, new funding and payment models; in a few years things are likely to look very different from the industry we know now. This is the time to do something different, so that’s what I’m planning to do.”

As well as working on the three main Fable titles, Simon Carter was also technical lead on Dungeon Keeper and part of Peter Molyneux’s Bullfrog Productions team.

With the next Fable installment being a Kinect-exclusive FPS, can you blame them?