The game Fable was the Xbox Series X Games Showcase’s last reveal. As it turns out, there were challenges faced in reviving the title.
The announcement came as a surprise to the gaming community, as the original developers of Fable, Lionhead, was reportedly closed down in 2016.
With its re-entry to the Xbox platform, Playground Games, the maker of Forza Horizon, is tasked to spearhead the development.
The Fable gameplay
Last week’s trailer was only a minute long, so not much was revealed, except a confirmation of its surprising return. This led many to speculate as to what genre will this new Fable game be.
During the weekend, rumors emerged that the upcoming title will be an MMO, instead of a “direct sequel” to its predecessors. Leakers allegedly broke the news to the game’s hopeful followers that Playerground’s version won’t be a Fable 4.
A recent Q&A sit down (via video call) with the head of the Xbox Games Studios, Matt Booty, and Keith Stuart from The Guardian cleared the air as to what Fable will be.
This automatically cleared the MMO rumor. Accordingly, Fable will be an open-world game, with the devs hoping to pay its respect to the core of the game.
“I just look at what Playground has done with the Horizon series – that attention to detail, the ability to represent these naturalistic landscapes. They also have a real passion for the IP and a unique point of view on what’s core to Fable,” says Booty. “Everything I’ve seen as the game progresses tells me this is going to be a very high-quality release.”
Discussing the game’s revival
Booty further talked about how Microsoft and its respective new developers are trying to balance the game to cater to its many aspects. There’s always the ideas to keep in mind: connecting it to its previous versions and how to keep the game forward.
“With any kind of franchise like that, where you’ve had existing versions, there’s always that balance between what you’re going to bring forward, what still stands up, and what you want to add that’s new,” Booty expressed.
He then compared the game’s revival to making a new Star Wars movie. “It’s like the challenge of making a new Star Wars movie – there’s stuff that everyone wants you to bring along, but then you’ve got a responsibility to take that to new places and I trust Playground has a good vision for that.”
The Star Wars franchise has been around for the longest time, and it has a very close-knit community. This is similar to Fable, with its very first game launching in 2004.
Meanwhile, the Fable release was not talked about. Although Gamespot hinted that Playground may have been working on the game since 2017, following the opening of the devs’ second office for a “non-racing game.”
Featured image courtesy of Xbox/YouTube Screenshot