At today’s Xbox Developer Direct, we got our first proper look at Fable, the new open-world action-RPG from Playground Games, and the second of the studio’s games shown, following the exhilarating-looking Forza Horizon 6. The latest entry in the 22-year-old franchise, Fable is set to release this Autumn across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
The extended deep-dive into Fable, which you can watch below (Timestamp – 1:05:00), gave us a good look at many facets of the game fans have been longing to see, from showing off combat and confirming character customisation, to reintroducing the morality system and revealing the game’s Living Population of unique NPCs, as well as so much more. From seeing how our adventures will begin, to the myriad of choices players will make to shape themselves and the very world of Albion, there was a lot to take in, and while we still don’t have a fixed release date, Playground Games still had more to share.
Ralph Fulton, Fable’s GM and Game Director, spoke with Xbox Wire, going into more detail on what was shown off during the Developer Direct. When asked if Playground Games’ Fable was a complete reboot of the IP or a continuation of it, Fulton explained that the studio had always seen it as a “new beginning”.
“So, we’ve chosen not to be beholden to the timeline of the original games – the events, the characters – really just to allow ourselves the freedom to build our own Albion and tell our own, new story within it.”
During the deep-dive, we got to see some familiar locales, such as Albion’s magnificent capital, Bowerstone, and just from the clips we saw of the player character moving through different environments, Fable fans will no doubt get that strong sense of familiarity. Grassy fields, cobblestone roads, and mist-laden marshes are just a handful of the different places making up Albion’s geography, each filled with old foes, like Hobbes and Balverines, and new ones, like the fire-breathing Cockatrice. It certainly seems like the team are staying true to the original trilogy developed by Lionhead Studios, abundantly aware of the legacy they now carry.
“And if I’m totally honest,” said Fulton, “back then I wasn’t entirely sure how ‘faithful’ our Fable game would be to the Lionhead games we love. But as I said during Developer_Direct, I’ve been really pleased to see that this is identifiably a Fable game in lots of different ways.
This latest entry will also start like its predecessors, with the player beginning as a young child before a timeskip that ages them up to an adult, and when fans can then customise their character. The inciting incident that sets you on your quest, as well as awakens your control of magic, is the mysterious figure turning your village, including your grandma, to stone.
“You’re suddenly alone in this village and forced really to go out into the world, and your motivation is to try and figure out what happened to them and try and reverse it,” explained Ralph. “The only clue you have is this mysterious stranger, who you really only caught a glimpse of at the start of the game. Finding the stranger seems like the only thread you can pull, the only lead you can follow. So that’s how we get you out into the world.”
Your journey will naturally take you to Bowerstone, where the fabled Hero’s Guild is found, and you’ll begin the work of becoming a hero, gaining a reputation, and impacting the world around you. But Fable is not a linear game by any stretch, offering an open world to explore, full of challenges and secrets, with no level-capping to limit player freedom. While he did say they would reveal more about levelling and progression at a later date, Fulton did say that “being able to go to any one of the settlements in the world and have fun things to do there was imperative to us [Playground Games]. And so we shaped our progression around that requirement.”
When it comes to combat, the team at Playground Games are taking the series iconic blend of melee, ranged, and magic, or “Strength, Skill, and Will” to Fable fans, and turning it into a system that allows players to weave all three together seamlessly. “You should be able to strike with a sword and then hurl a fireball in a smooth movement,” said Fulton, “So that’s what we’ve set out to achieve with combat.” We couldn’t agree more!
Comat encounters will often feature groups, mixing different enemy types to create scenarios that foster creativity during combat, as well as foes having unique behaviours and weak points that, when hit, cause specific reactions. A moment during the Developer Direct shows a Hobbe accidentally killing one of its compatriots, a moment that Fulton feels is very much “in keeping with that fan-favorite enemy.”
“But yeah, keeping in as much of that kind of friendly fire stuff as possible always adds a little bit of chaos and a lot of humor to combat. And that’s, I guess, one of the questions we’ve asked ourselves a lot: if humor is important to Fable, how does it manifest in combat – an inherently serious pursuit?”
Speaking on the Fable series’ reputation for quintessential British humour, this entry will continue this fine tradition, with the voice cast being another who’s-who as it was with the first three games. The Living Population, over a thousand unique NPCs with their own personalities, backgrounds, and routines, also adds to the game’s general buzz and comedy, reacting to your presence and not being frightened to tell you what they think of you. In line with this, the team nicked an idea from one of their inspirations, the TV series The Office, creating these mockumentary-style interview moments. “I think a lot of people assume we just did that for those trailers,” Fulton says, “but it’s actually a device we use throughout the game.”
“I’ve never seen it in games before, but it allows you a way to really neatly tell a joke or drop a little bit of character detail in a way that would feel really clunky in a dialogue, but suddenly feels entirely natural when you do it to ‘camera’.”
There is still plenty more information for fans to pore over in both the Developer Direct deep dive and Xbox Wire’s interview with Ralph Fulton, but if we covered it all here, this article would be at least three times as long! We still haven’t heard about several elements of the game, such as the main narrative, but Ralph promises we will see more before Fable’s release. “We can’t wait to go deeper into gameplay aspects like combat, progression, weapons, exploration, the social and economic sims and all that good stuff. We’ve got lots more to share…”
Fable is slated to release in the autumn of 2026 across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
What did you think of the Fable deep dive at the Xbox Developer Direct? Does what the game’s GM and Game Director say fill you with confidence? Let us know in the comments below, and consider joining the Gamer Social Club Discord, where you can chat with others about your favourite games, play in community game nights, take part in giveaways, and more!
