Fable developer Lionhead after programmer with MMO skills for unannounced game

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 14 December, 2011

Unreal experience a bonus.

UPDATE: Lionhead has issued Eurogamer the following statement:

"Thanks for checking in with us! We're happy to tell you all about what we're working on. Just apply, get hired, and we promise to spill our guts!"

ORIGINAL STORY: Fable developer Lionhead wants a programmer with MMO skills to help make an unannounced game.

A job advert calls for an experienced principle programmer to be a "key contributor on an unannounced title".

Microsoft-owned Lionhead said the ideal candidate "is someone who enjoys playing MMO games and has significant experience with the workings of a massive online multiplayer environment".

It continues: "The role will focus on defining the high level network architecture for the project, security concerns, support for seamless post-launch updates, and implementation of server features."

Key accountabilities include "work with the design and programming teams to ensure the feasibility of multiplayer features".

Essential experience includes a passion for playing MMO games, and a minimum of one shipped MMO as a network programmer.

Desireable experience includes Xbox 360 / Xbox Live experience and multiplatform development experience. Experience with Epic Games' Unreal Engine - which Lionhead is using to build Fable: The Journey - is a plus.

In August Lionhead was rumoured to be working on a fourth incarnation of the Fable series.

"Look for the Fable cycle to continue with a proper, controller-based Fable 4 in 2013," the Official Xbox Magazine said.

Microsoft-owned Lionhead took four years to turn around a sequel to the original Xbox's Fable, while the gap between Fable 2 and 3 was just two years.

Kinect-enhanced Fable: The Journey is expected sometime next year.

Eurogamer has asked Lionhead for comment.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • AceGrace #1 5 months ago

    Post deleted at 14:05:28 14-12-2011

  • JamieR #2 5 months ago

    Fable Online?

  • Tomnd #3 5 months ago

    i have non-real mmo experience, does that count?

  • Tomnd #4 5 months ago

    sorry that was poor

  • MurgleGurgle #5 5 months ago

    Oh you, Lionhead

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #6 5 months ago

    I love Fable, and Lionhead might be my favourite developer, but I do kinda wish they'd make something new.

    Of course I may be jumping the gun, but Fable 4 coming so soon after Fable: The Journey is a tiny bit disappointing. And I can't be the only one expecting this MMO to be a Fable game, can I?

    Maybe I'm being unfair. Chances are I'll still buy it!

  • metallicorphan #7 5 months ago

    I hope this means another MMO on the 360,so few right now but i had so much fun with FF11 on the 360 that i welcome more

    Fable 2(and 3)inclusion of the orbs for other people online made those games feel a little MMOish,maybe they were testing the waters so to speak..it was cool when you were in the darkest dungeon or forest and then a few orbs would pass you,told you that you were not alone,haha

    and LOL,on Lionhead's update :)

  • Naster #8 5 months ago

    Another one bites the dust...

  • jsb115 #9 5 months ago

    How much do you want to bet that MS will charge a monthly subscription on top of the existing XBL subscription?

    :rolleyes:

  • ZizouFC #10 5 months ago

    Peter Molyneux has been quiet.

  • cheeky-sod #11 5 months ago

    That trailer from E3 is soooo shite. Why make Fable worse? 1 and 2 were amazing, 3 was ok.. now this :(

  • metallicorphan #12 5 months ago

    @jsb115 well you only needed silver to play FF11...but yeah as this will be MS published it wouldn't surprise me,weren't F2P MMOs becoming all the rage?

  • Clash #13 5 months ago

    I hope it is a Fable MMO. Loved Fable: TLC and Fable 2, shame that 3 wasn't as good. Screw the haters, I'll take an Xbox, PC, cross-platform MMO of Fable.

  • Squidgywidgywoo #14 5 months ago

    Hopefully it won't be anything like Fable. Lionhead have great ideas, but they don't seem to be able to execute them. The original Fable was good, but 2 and 3 have been a disappointment.

  • wattsn26 #15 5 months ago

    For the love of all do not make another Fable game...do something different. This is why I respect Sony more, "The Last of Us" is being made by the same team who by all means, made the best selling PS3 titles, they could be working on another Uncharted instead they decided to make a new IP, Lionhead please take a break and make another Black & White

  • wattsn26 #16 5 months ago

    @gotyourmoney Thats true, there are three Fable games but in terms of popularity on the PS3, Uncharted 2 and 3 have had more success than Fable 2 and Fable 3, i.e. they garnered more acclaim from reviews and awards yet they decided to do a new IP instead of getting right to work on Uncharted 4 with the other half of Naughty Dog

    Its also true that there probably will be another numbered Uncharted but I don't know if Naughty Dog will do it. Sony is not like Microsoft in their titles, they don't pressure their studios into making sequels they don't want to do, they instead port of said sequels to their other studios. Uncharted 4 could very well be developed by Sony Bend Studios (Uncharted Golden Abyss) while Naughty Dog works on another new IP. Media Molecule is working on a new IP while another studio works on LittleBigPlanet for Vita.

    I'm almost certain that if Microsoft had their way and Bungie was still owned by them they'd be making Halo 4 instead of 343i and that would be terribly boring as a developer IMO.

  • RodHull #17 5 months ago

    Black and White Online with all of us lot playing the little worshipping types and Molyneux alone taking on the role of the disembodied God-hand.

  • Jayaitch #18 5 months ago

    Post deleted at 18:50:52 11-01-2012

  • bionic_v2 #19 5 months ago

    I've never heard of Fable ?
    Edited by bionic_v2 at 15/12/11 @ 07:29

  • Totza #20 5 months ago

    @wattsn26 But they're still making another Uncharted lmfao overated game

  • The-Bodybuilder #21 5 months ago

    @jsb115 It's funny you mention MS charges.
    I tried to use the Zune Player (I own a WP7 phone) and the trail zune pass which had just expired. I thought "if it's a few quid, I might just get it." IT BLOODY COSTS £8 PER MONTH.

    So just to use the zune pass on my 360, I must;
    1. Pay monthly broadband sub
    2. Then Pay for a Gold sub
    3. THEN pay £8 for a zune pass?

    And as you stated, for an MMO they'd probably want a charge for that too. All the while filling my screen with ads.

    PISS OFF, MS. This is seriously getting out of hand.

  • Farzlepot #22 5 months ago

    I don't understand Mucrosoft sometimes. They own the studio that made Black and White, one of my favourite games of all time. And they're trying to push Kinect down everybody's throat (literally everybody, if the recent story about it being integrated into TVs is anything to go by).

    I don't know if I'm alone here, but of all the 'proper' games they're shoehorning Kinect into, It seems to me that B&W is the only one that might actually benefit from using the technology. And as we all know, B&W also held a 'wider audience'.

    So what are they getting Lionhead to do? First randomly make an on-rails Kinect game based on Fable (the most unlikely partnership of all time, second only to the notion of having an on-rails installment of The Elder Scrolls), and now an MMO - presumably also set in Albion.

    Come on MS! Pull your brain out of whatever jar you're keeping it in these days and get on it! A Kinect-enabled Black and White would immediately become the second game I'd have purchased for Kinect since I got it shortly after launch - and I'd wager many gamers would feel the same way! And ultimately, even now that you've turned your once-illustrious machine into a family-friendly, motion-controlled, movie-streaming mess, it's still us, the gamers who've given you your high attach rate, who pays your rent at the end of the day!



    Wow. That casual suggestion randomly became a rant! Cool. I didn't know I could do that