Lionhead founder Peter Molyneux left the UK-based game developer, and its owners at Microsoft, over a year ago, but today the company announced that the studio now has a new permanent head man, and his background may be a clue as to what Lionhead may be making next.
The Lionhead website posted word that John Needham is now the studio's new leader, reporting to Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment head in Europe Phil Harrison. Needham's background is solidly in the MMO game genre. His resume includes working as a Senior Vice-President of Sony Online Entertainment and as CEO of Cryptic Studios (Champions Online and Star Trek Online). His most recent gig was as CEO of Gazillion Entertainment, which is developing the Marvel Heroes MMO game.
While Lionhead has developed other game franchises, it is best known for the Fable fantasy RPG series which have been released for the Xbox, Xbox 360 and PC platforms. Needham's background does seem to suggest he was brought in because of his MMO experience and many are speculating that Microsoft and Lionhead are developing a massively multiplayer game based on the Fable universe.
Lionhead's last game was Fable: The Journey, a poorly reviewed Kinect exclusive Xbox 360 RPG that was released in the fall of 2012. Microsoft has yet to state what Lionhead's next project will be.
Source: Lionhead | Image via Microsoft
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