Fable is back – and Xbox is truly taking its time with it. Playground Games has now been working on the reboot of the cult British RPG series for around ten years, and studio officials are now publicly explaining why. In an interview with Eurogamer, a lead developer at Playground Games describes Fable as a central component of the "DNA" of the entire Xbox platform.
Why is Fable's development taking so long?
According to the developers, the brand's significance for Xbox has protected the project from exactly the kind of cuts that recently affected numerous other studios and projects at Microsoft. Instead of rushing the game to completion, the team has apparently been given the freedom to refine the systems, world, and tone until they truly fit. Playground Games does not provide specific figures on team size or budget, but the underlying sentiment is clear: Fable is intended to become the flagship title that demonstrates what Xbox still stands for as a brand.
What happened to the old Fable universe?
The Fable series has experienced a severe setback before. The original trilogy from Lionhead Studios (2004 to 2010) was considered one of the flagships of the first two Xbox console generations before Microsoft closed the studio in 2016. Its successor, “Fable Legends,” was completely scrapped even before its release. The fact that Playground Games – known for the “Forza Horizon” series – has been entrusted with reviving the brand is, accordingly, a vote of confidence: The studio has experience with open-world racing games but has never delivered a true-blue RPG before. The long development time is likely also connected to the team having to build new competencies in parallel.
For Xbox fans, this primarily means: patience. Microsoft has still not provided a concrete release date; official statements have so far been limited to vague timeframes. Anyone who was hoping for an imminent release date should, based on the current statements, brace themselves for a release without a fixed schedule rather than a short-term announcement.
From our perspective, this is a comprehensible but risky strategy: After the Fable Legends debacle and several recently disappointing Xbox first-party releases, Microsoft can hardly afford another failure with one of its most famous brands. However, the longer the development takes, the greater the community's expectation pressure will become.
Source: Eurogamer, GamesRadar+
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