Flaming Fowl, the team of developers comprised of former Lionhead Studios employees, announces the cancellation of the Fable Fortune Kickstarter campaign.
After Lionhead Studios closed down, many feared that the studio's closure also marked the demise of the Fable franchise in general. Some hope was restored when Fable Fortune, a collectible card game based on characters from the Fable universe, was announced with a Kickstarter campaign. However, developer Flaming Fowl has announced that the Kickstarter campaign for the game has been cancelled, nearly £200,000 shy of its ambitious £250,000 funding goal.
Fable fans looking forward to Fable Fortune shouldn't be too upset about the cancellation of the game's Kickstarter, however. As it turns out, a mysterious outside source has come forward with the funds necessary to help the team finish development, so Fable Fortune should still be on track to enter its beta in August was the developers had originally planned.
Prior to its cancellation, the Kickstarter campaign included stretch goals that included potential Xbox One, iOS, and Android versions. Unfortunately, it's unclear if the new partner will help fund those loft stretch goals, but with Microsoft retaining the rights to the Fable IP, one has to imagine that the company would like to see it release on its home console as well.
In the meantime, it should be noted that Fable Fortune is not completely saved. After all, the horror game Allison Road was picked up for publishing by Team17 after its Kickstarter campaign wasn't going to meet its funding goal, yet that game still ended up cancelled anyway.
Fable Fortune had an even less successful Kickstarter campaign than the ill-fated Allison Road, so it seems strange that an outside source has stepped forward to fund the rest of the game's development. The game was just a little over one fifth of the way to meeting its funding goal, which seems to indicate that there was not a lot of interest in the Fable card game spinoff.
Based on its lack of success on Kickstarter, it seems likely that Fable fans would much rather play a full-fledged new game in the franchise as opposed to a Hearthstone-style spinoff. Having said that, if Fable Fortune manages to make as much money as other games in the genre, perhaps it could convince Microsoft to invest in a proper sequel in the popular franchise at some point down the road.
Fable Fortune is expected to enter closed beta in August, and is apparently in development for PC and Xbox One.
Source: Fable Fortune Kickstarter