from Hacker News

Fable is winding down

by timmb on 10/15/24, 4:57 PM with 76 comments

by notpushkin on 10/15/24, 6:40 PM
> On November 15, 2024, the Fable product will be shut down. All users will no longer be able to sign up, log in, or access files. All customer data and project files will be permanently deleted [...]
> We recommend you look through your Fable files and export your projects off the platform (e.g. to mp4, gif, lottie… etc).
I genuinely am at a loss for words here. Somebody sat down and decided that giving you your project sources in some form is too much work, just a GIF export will do.
(For those looking to save their data: go for Lottie, it’s a bit more versatile and you can preserve vector data at least.)
EDIT: the ideal way to go here would of course be open sourcing the whole thing!
by SoftTalker on 10/15/24, 6:41 PM
It always amazes me how many of these "we're winding down X" stories hit the front page here and I've never heard of X. We really do work in silos, even if it doesn't seem that way.
by ryanwhitney on 10/15/24, 6:30 PM
Sad, I’ve been waiting for the “figma of after effects”—one of the few positive (albeit unlikely) potentials around the failed adobe purchase.
“However, by the time we started to take Fable to market, AI was beginning to challenge the very nature of software itself, and our multi-modal bet with Prism wasn’t enough to cut through. And while we hold a strong pov on how the next generation of creative workflows should evolve, unfortunately, we don’t have the time to get there.”
Failed AI bet?
by oidar on 10/15/24, 6:37 PM
The app is built, why not just let it simmer for awhile. Are the costs of running it greater than the money it brings in?
by henning on 10/15/24, 7:02 PM
> However, by the time we started to take Fable to market, AI was beginning to challenge the very nature of software itself
No it didn't. ChatGPT spitting out snippets of broken shit where you have to tell it exactly what you want and think through the entire architecture yourself is not a challenge to the nature of software. Especially older models that were even worse than the current 2024 ones.
Also, AI-generated code is still code. The underlying hardware still works the same.
by moralestapia on 10/15/24, 6:34 PM
If the founders drop by this thread:
* Please open source it! *
This is the best conclusion for everybody involved.
by schnebbau on 10/15/24, 7:56 PM
From their terms:
> You must be 18 years of age or older and reside in the United States or any of its territories to use the Services
In hindsight, excluding 95.3% of the world from using their product may have been a mistake.
by groby_b on 10/15/24, 8:21 PM
How on earth does the "AI! Paradigm change!" noise make any sense as reason for a shutdown?
by ratedgene on 10/15/24, 7:10 PM
Huh, it's interesting the supposition is that AI tools are the future, therefore they're unable to compete in time especially when they seemed perfectly poised to adopt that strategy.
Why wouldn't they use that to sell another round to bridge?
by hiyer on 10/16/24, 1:29 AM
I thought it was the reading community app [1], which I use off and on. Never heard of these guys, so nothing to see here for me.
1. https://fable.co/
by your_challenger on 10/17/24, 10:02 AM
What does AI have to do for the shutting down of a motion graphics design app?
They focused on the wrong thing, spent too much money and decided to call it quits.
by a1o on 10/15/24, 6:31 PM
Has someone reimplemented the flash Editor in some open source project? I know there's a player made in rust.
by bruce511 on 10/15/24, 7:10 PM
I found the "why are we closing down" to be somewhat weak.
I mean, you're closing down cause you ran out of cash right? But apparently the app is beloved by customers... right?
Something about AI (which seems somewhat vague...)
Anyway, why not just be honest? We swung for the fences, didn't quite get there, the money is all gone, and no-one wants yo give us more...
Frankly as post mortems go, this one is pretty weak.
by blacksqr on 10/15/24, 7:06 PM
Do they live happily ever after?
by adamc on 10/15/24, 7:42 PM
Yet another example of how startups are often a negative for customers.