You might remember that Microsoft recently ordered the closure of Lionhead Studios after cancelling Fable Legends (even though Fable Fortune, a collectible card game originally conceived at Lionhead, is trying its luck on Kickstarter).

　　Kotaku UK published a massive article today digging into the reasons behind this unfortunate event. They were also able to get some really interesting information out of their (anonymous) sources at Microsoft.

　　These sources had no trouble depicting Windows Store as one of the main problems encountered with Fable Legends, though they also pointed out that Windows 10 installs and Xbox One consoles are much lower than predicted by Microsoft, which is yet another problem they had to face.

　　When we started the project we weren’t aware of Windows 10. We were going to ship on Xbox One initially and then we wanted to come out on PC at a later point, most likely though Steam. But we got burnt quite badly.

　　Without Steam, without other platforms, it was just painful. The Windows Store is a giant disaster. It’s on fire. 98% of PC copies of Rise of the Tomb Raider, a flagship Windows 10 game, were bought on Steam. The same is true for Minecraft. That hurt us, too. The store’s a mess; the number of people who couldn’t even install the game from the Microsoft store was… significant.

　　Let’s be honest – we make our projections based on a series of assumptions. There are supposed to be 2x as many Xboxes out there as there are right now. There are supposed to be 2x as many Windows 10 installs as there currently are. So now, when we look at how much money Legends could make in the free-to-play universe, you have to halve it. Because we can only reach half the audience that was projected.

　　This might be why Microsoft is now pushing all of its previously exclusive Xbox One titles on Windows 10 - they're trying to cut losses wherever possible and maximize revenue. We may have more of these announcements at their E3 2016 Briefing, which is due next Monday - stay tuned for all the news.