One of the surprise announcements in Microsoft’s Xbox game showcase in July was a new Fable game from developer Playground. Very little is known about this project, and it is likely that it is still a long way off. With so much time away from the franchise, the developers know that expectations are high. It seems they are up to the challenge.
Xbox Games Studios boss Matt Booty has now spoken about the challenge of reviving the Fable series, saying it’s no different than the situation Disney finds itself in when making a new Star Wars movie. You want to respect the brand’s history but also push things forward, Booty said.
“With any type of franchise like that, where you’ve had existing versions, there’s always a balance between what you’re going to present, what’s still going on, and what you want to add that’s new,” Booty told The Guardian. “It’s like the challenge of making a new Star Wars movie: There are things that everyone wants you to bring, but then you have a responsibility to take that to new places and I trust Playground has a good vision for that.”
With the frog-eats-the-fairy sequence, the first teaser for the new Fable game seemed to suggest that the joyous nature of the franchise will continue. The trailer ended by unfolding to reveal a large, sprawling map that appears to be the setting for the new Fable game.
The Fable series was created by Peter Molyneux at Lionhead Studios. The franchise debuted in 2004, with the sequels Fable II and Fable III released in 2008 and 2010, respectively. A Kinect game, Fable: The Journey, was released in 2012, while a remaster of the first game released in 2014.
A new game, Fable Legends, was in development at Lionhead until Microsoft closed the game studio and canceled the game.
The new Fable game, which is simply called Fable, is being developed by Forza Horizon Playground’s second developer team. In 2017 Playground opened a second office to work on a non-racing game, and now we know it is Fable’s new game.
