It's almost been a decade since the last entry in the series was released, but now fans are hopeful that Fable 4 will be revealed for the new Xbox Series X next-gen console. Rumors about Fable 4 have been circulating for some time now, and while Microsoft hasn't revealed anything about the existence of a fourth entry, it's reportedly in the works at Forza Horizon developer Playground Games.
[Update: if we hear about Fable 4 at all this year, it'll be on July 23's Xbox Series X games reveal event. Here's how to watch the Xbox Series X games reveal showcase.]
The series has had a torrid history since Fable 3 released. Fable: The Journey came to Kinect and Xbox 360, but isn't really considered a full entry in the series. Later, the studio behind Fable, Lionhead, was working on an online games-as-service title called Fable Legends. But this game never released as Lionhead was shuttered, seeming to take the Fable series with it.
But that wasn't the case. In early 2017, Phil Spencer reignited the hopes of fans by saying that the series wasn't, in fact, dead and that it still had places to go. And, as mentioned, later reports emerged that Playground Games is working on a fourth Fable game that will restore the series to glory.
Adding fuel to the fire, an alleged Fable 4 leak emerged on Reddit in June 2019, and although nothing has yet come of this leak, it certainly captured the imaginations of fans. To the disappointment of many, Fable 4 never made an appearance at E3 2019, but with 2020 marking the launch of the Xbox Series X, it's more likely we'll hear more about the game this year.
We’ve put together everything you need to know regarding the news and rumors about Fable 4, as well as what we'd love to see from the next instalment.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The fourth game in the Xbox exclusive open-world RPG series
- What can I play it on? Xbox and PC most likely
- When can I play it? Nothing confirmed but, even if it is happening, it’ll still be some time
Fable 4 release date: what we know
Given that Fable 4 hasn’t actually been confirmed yet, and we sadly don't have the prophetic powers of the games' soothsaying Theresa, it’d be hard to pin down any kind of release date for Fable 4.
However, back in 2018, Eurogamer posited that development on the game was in its very early stages, with rumored developer Playground Games still hiring to boost team numbers up to around 200.
Of course that news feels a little old now, but it's all we have to go on at the moment. We know that the Xbox Series X will launch during the 2020 holiday period, but we don't anticipate seeing this project until 2021 at the very least.
News and rumors
Though Microsoft hasn’t officially confirmed Fable 4 is on the way, there have been signs that the franchise hasn’t been abandoned.
We've collected together all of the top rumors and news below, take each with a grain of salt and remember that some of these are years old now - we're keeping them here to show you the full development of Fable 4. Fingers crossed the wait will be worth it.
The next generation
Microsoft has unveiled its next generation console, the Xbox Series X, and a rough release window of 'Holiday 2020'. Naturally, players are wondering what titles Microsoft might want to showcase on this new and improved platform. If the rumors around Fable 4 are correct and it is in the works and not simply a hope and dream, 2020 could finally be the year we hear more about it.
Writing chops
If the rumours that Playground Games is indeed the studio tasked with developing the next Fable game are true then things are looking positive for the game’s story.
Recently (via VGC) senior scriptwriter Kim MacAskill joined the studio’s as-yet-unannounced RPG team from Rocksteady to work alongside fellow Rocksteady and Batman: Arkham Knight writers Martin Lancaster, who is now a narrative director, and Craig Owens, principal scriptwriter.
It remains unconfirmed that Playground Games’ RPG project is Fable 4 but if it is then the game will have some narrative chops thanks to the Arkham Knight alumni.
Reddit leak
On June 3, 2019, Reddit user LagSwag 1 published details of an alleged Fable 4 leak. The details come from a video that's since been removed (and which we haven't seen ourselves), which details a few key features of the fourth instalment, including both first and third-person perspectives, an in-depth character creator, no guns, the option to ignore the main quest, the option for players to build towns, multiplayer and the game apparently running on Unreal engine. Wow, that's a lot to take in.
If that wasn't enough to throw your head in a spin, two more details have emerged from the leak. The first is that the land of Albion (where the game is set) could be no more, with different worlds and planets to explore. And to access these planets? There could be a time travel element, via a Demon Door.
This is clearly a huge departure from the original Fable games, but it sounds ambitious and exciting too. We also expected nothing less given past iterations of the game made huge leaps time-wise between each installment. Jumping possibly centuries into the future to a time when time travel tech is around makes a lot of sense.
However, that's porting over old ideas of how the game progresses onto the new idea. Maybe this will take us back to the past of the first game but with time travel elements added in? The leak suggested the reason for the new planets is that someone got control of the magic Spire and used it to destroy the planet (!), which means we might not be in the future at all? These are all just guesses, of course, but it's fun to speculate where the game might be taking us next.
Peter Molyneux talks Fable 4
Though Peter Molyneux is no longer actively involved in the Fable 4 franchise, rumors of the next title have reached him and in an IGN interview he had some comments to make on where he'd like to see it go, as well as what he regretted in games gone by.
Molyneux said that he regretted the massive time jumps between the mainline games and that he'd like to see the next game be a prequel: “Fable story hinted at a dramatic time before Fable 1 when the Guild was founded, this would be a perfect setting for Fable 4, the land of Albion would be much more primitive, the magic much more attuned to nature, the combat much more brutal. The story would follow the founding members of the heroes guild, why it was set up."
Finally, he wants to see a more organic morality and character progression systems, where players will affect their alignment through their actions rather than choosing a class at the beginning of the game. Find yourself stealing lots of stuff and making use of stealth? You'll quickly become known as a thief.
The Eurogamer report
In January 2018 Eurogamer said that according to sources close to the project, a brand new high-budget Fable game is in the works.
This news came less than two years after the closure of Lionhead Studios, and the report says that UK developer Playground Games, best known for its work on the Forza Horizon series, will be the new developers for the series.
Eurogamers sources say that a team of more than 200 will be working on Fable from the team’s new offices in Leamington Spa, though development is still in the very early stages.
Just what kind of Fable might Playground be working on? Well, the report says that the game is planned to be an open world world action RPG with a focus on character and story.
Fable co-creator Simon Carter told Eurogamer that the news left him with “mixed” feelings. Though he said it was great news for the UK games industry and he’d be pleased to return to Fable as a “punter”, he added that it’s “curious” that Microsoft would get rid of a development team that knows the franchise inside out.
He doesn’t doubt, however, that the team at Playground is “very talented” and will do a “fantastic job.”
It is somewhat curious that Microsoft has taken this sudden shift in attitude towards the Fable franchise. According to Eurogamer, it’s the result of the success of Guerrilla Games’ Horizon: Zero Dawn, This single-player story-driven game was a hugely beneficial exclusive for PlayStation and a sign that the future isn’t just exclusively for service-based online games.
Playground is a studio that has done fantastic work for Microsoft with the Forza Horizon series so it’s understandable that the company would turn to them in the hopes of another exclusive success.
Microsoft has yet to comment on these rumors so Fable’s return remains unconfirmed.
The Xbox Live API Leak
Before Eurogamer’s report, in early January 2018 an Xbox Live API leak suggested that a Fable project with the codename Wisdom is being worked on by a UK-based developer.
The Lionhead tweet
Not long after this, a former Lionhead Lead Engine Programmer called Don Williamson posted on Twitter that he’d worked out which studio was working on Fable 4, stating that he believed it to be an interesting choice. This has since been deleted though it was captured by WCCFTech.
When asked by WCCFTech if the studio working on the game was based in Brighton, Williamson replied that there was no Brighton-based studio big enough to take on the task. With the knowledge gained from the Xbox Live API Leak, WCCFTech surmised that it must be Playground Games working on Fable.
The studio had been recruiting developers to work on a Triple-A open world RPG before this point, which ties in neatly with these suspicions. Given that Playground Games is best known for the Forza Horizon titles and hasn’t worked on an open world RPG before, it’s unsurprising that Williamson believed the studio to be an interesting choice. However, given the degree of hiring going on we imagine the team is trying to get developers with the necessary expertise.
Phil Spencer
Our very first sign that the Fable franchise would one day return came from Xbox’s own Phil Spencer. In early 2017 Spencer tweeted that though Microsoft had nothing to announce at that time, there were “plenty of places” the IP could go.
Nothing to announce right now but I do think the IP has a lot of places it could go.April 30, 2017
It wasn’t much to go on but it added weight to reports that emerged in the aftermath of Lionhead’s closure that Microsoft had turned down offers to buy the studio as it wanted to keep hold of the Fable license.
Fable 4: What we want to see
An exciting story
Albion is a world with serious potential and we’d love to return to it in style. Previous Fable storylines haven’t always been groundbreaking and the story in Fable 3 was really very disappointing. However, the history of heroes and guilds has always been an interesting one and the Fable universe is far from short of interesting and well-written characters to jump off from.
If more recent rumors are true, we may have to make peace with the Fable universe in a literal sense. We'll be sad to say goodbye to Albion, of course, but we're also confident that if the game is taken to different places, and even different planets, it'll make sense to the experience as a whole. Each iteration of the game has always felt like a big change - Fable 4 is likely to be no exception.
A great soundtrack
Without fail, every single Fable game has had a soundtrack that’s stuck in our heads. Every track manages to create an atmosphere and a real sense of fairy tale fun. We’d love to see this commitment to sound and music make a return in any new instalment.
Multiplayer
One of the biggest recent rumors is that the game could be getting a multiplayer mode. We're not entirely sure how this will work, but it's an option that will add a new twist on the classic game that we're excited to try for ourselves - and with everyone we know.
- Although Fable 4 might, finally, be on its way, there's still a long wait ahead. In the meantime, check out our selection of then best Xbox One games to play right now
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