A new mainline Fable game hasn't been seen since 2010, now going on 15 years. The fantasy action-RPG series known for its generous serving of humor and some life-sim elements is finally coming back, though it's already been a few years since this reboot, simply called Fable (or sometimes called Fable 4 by fans) was revealed in 2020. With so many Xbox Game Studios projects in the works, few are as anticipated as this one. Let's take a look at everything we know about Xbox's next Fable game.
Our first look at Fable didn't give any story or gameplay details, but it did certainly set a mood. The trailer showed off a fairy flitting her way through an idyllic fantasy forest, before suddenly getting eaten by a huge toad. That fits the irreverent tone the Fable series is known for. And notably, the trailer simply refers to it as "Fable," indicating this could be a reboot.
It would be a few years before we saw a new Fable trailer, but we got one--including what seemed like some hints of actual gameplay footage--in June 2023 during the Xbox Games Showcase. Though more than two years later, when this is being written, it would appear the game isn't tracking for a 2025 launch. British actor and comedian Richard Ayoade voices Dave, the oversized gardener who's not too fond of our heroes.
Following this, another Fable 4 trailer debuted at the Xbox Games Showcase in 2024. If you're familiar with the British sitcom Peep Show, you'll recognize the voice of Super Hans, Matt King, as Humphry the narrator. It's during this trailer that we see the player character in action, firing arrows and stabbing enemies. The trailer also gives a brief rundown of other heroes.
Pre-alpha footage of the new Fable debuted in February 2025. It looks like Fable will have a variety of different combat options, including wielding swords, hammers, and magic spells. There also seems to be seamless transition between cinematic cutscenes and combat. According to a previous report, Fable's combat will feel similar to that of The Witcher 3's.
Some brief glimpses of Fable gameplay were shown as well. Those clips are compiled in the video below, showing off some of the various environments, horseback riding, combat, and more. This is all labeled as being pre-alpha footage, however.
During an extended interview with Xbox Wire, Fable general manager and game director Ralph Fulton revealed that Fable 4 isn’t a sequel at all. Instead, it will be a complete reboot that ignores the events of the original trilogy. Fulton called it a “new beginning” for the franchise, and felt it was necessary for the upcoming game to have its own identity.
“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. There’s a lot of faithfulness in the way we’ve approached this game--and certainly I think the inspiration of the original trilogy is really clear for everyone to see. But we wanted to make sure that this was a new beginning that would allow us to tell the stories that we wanted to tell.”
The Fable release date will be during Fall 2026. Microsoft hasn’t set a specific date yet, but Fable will launch on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC, and it will be on Game Pass on day one.
Fable was originally expected to launch in 2025, but Microsoft announced that the game has been delayed to 2026.
Our hero is shown firing a bow at suspended enemies.
As before, players will get to choose a lot of the details about their hero, but the backstory will be universal. The player’s character begins the game as a child who is on their way to becoming Albion’s first hero in a generation. However, the child is soon the only survivor of a magical attack on their village that leaves everyone else--including their beloved grandmother--turned to stone.
When the game jumps ahead in time, players will retake control of their character as an adult. They will also have the freedom to choose between immediately questing to break the curse over their village or taking their time to explore the world.
In the original Fable trilogy, player characters underwent a process of morphing based upon their moral alignment. For example, if too many evil choices were made, the player’s hero took on a devilish appearance complete with horns. In the upcoming reboot, morphing is being completely left out of the game because morality is being treated as a more complex choice than simply being 100% good or 100% evil.
"Morality was always such an important part of the original trilogy," said Fulton during an interview with Xbox Wire. "I think that the original trilogy is inextricably linked with the concept of good and evil--but I think morality in video games has moved on in the intervening period. How we think about morality in the world today has really informed how we wanted to represent it as a game system in this game. That’s to say: There is no objective good, there is no objective evil. Really it's just about people's subjective opinions and what they choose to value in someone else when they make that judgment."
Fulton indicated that players can have different reputations in the various towns in the game, depending on the actions they choose to take. The game may not judge you for keeping tradition alive by kicking chickens, but the people of Albion will if they see your character behave that way.
According to Fulton, if players still turned into devil-like figures, the people would have prejudged them as evil. By doing away with the physical manifestations of being either good or evil, the intent was to let players define themselves by their choices.
Playground Games has been working on Fable’s open world for several years, and its effort has provided over 1,000 NPCs in Fable, all of whom can be interacted with on almost any level the player desires.
"You can talk to them, you can romance them, you can marry them," said Fulton. "You can divorce them or be divorced by them. You can have children with them. You can hire them. You can fire them. [NPCs] are kind of a game within a game, but they are such a unique, fundamental part of Fable. And I think one of the things that sets Fable apart from other open-world medieval fantasy RPGs is that it was uncuttable. We knew we had to deliver against this. I love that we've stuck with the ambition that we had right at the start of that."
Fulton went on to note that the developer took the time to develop daily routines for each of these characters, as well as their own distinct homes and personalities.
"The idea is that you can, in a very gamey sense, get to know [characters]," added Fulton. "You will learn the names of people in the settlement, if you spend enough time there, you'll kind of learn the things they like, their personality traits. You learn where they work. You can affect that as well. So there's tons of stuff that we've had to learn and do for the first time, but the experience of doing it has been wonderful.”
Additionally, every home or building in the game is explorable, and players can purchase their own homes as well.
Thus far, only a single cast member is confirmed for Fable: The IT Crowd’s Richard Ayoade. Fulton teased the predominantly British cast, but declined to share any specifics at this time.
"We have an amazing cast in this game--and we'll talk more about the cast in future," said Fulton. "Again, that's in keeping with the original Fable games ... We’ve got a sensational cast of characters that you'll meet in the main story.”
While there are over 1,000 NPCs, players will have to do without a canine companion in this adventure. Fulton acknowledged that the team originally planned to follow in the footsteps of the original Fable trilogy and include a dog, but they ultimately decided against it for “development reasons.”
"I don't need to go into any more detail than that, except to say there are a substantial number of people on the team who have yet to forgive me for that decision,” said Fulton.
The originator of the Fable series, Peter Molyneux's Lionhead Studios, was shuttered in 2016 alongside the cancellation of Fable Legends, an asymmetrical multiplayer take on the series. There hasn't been a mainline entry in the Fable franchise since Fable 3 back in 2010.
The new Fable title is helmed by Playground Games. The studio is known for the Forza Horizon games, and while those are racing titles, the developers are known for their vast open worlds--which is a check in the pro column for a new Fable game. Playground created a second studio, separate from the Horizon team, back in 2017, to handle what was an unnamed game at the time. Now we know that game is Fable.
Anna Megill, the lead writer on Remedy Entertainment's Control and narrative director of Arkane Studios' Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, has revealed that she is heading up the Fable writing team. We have some information about that team as well, and it features some notable people from Batman: Arkham series developer Rocksteady. Batman: Arkham Knight's lead scriptwriter, Martin Lancaster, will serve as the game's narrative director, and is joined by Rocksteady veterans Craig Owens, another former Batman script writer, and cinematic director Martin Tan.
Playground Games lead engineer Tom Gaulton revealed in 2021 that he had been working on Fable for four years. That means that development began around 2017, meaning the entire process will have taken almost a decade by the time the game releases in 2026.
Other members of the Fable team include Will Kennedy (GTA V) as chief designer, Juan Fernández de Simón (Hellblade) as principal game designer, and Adam Olsson (The Division 2) as lead environmental artist. Naturally, many members of the team also previously worked on the Forza Horizon series.
While Playground might not seem to be the most natural or obvious fit to make a new Fable, Xbox boss Matt Booty said Playground is the right team for the project for a variety of reasons.
"They had a particular passion for the IP, and they also demonstrated that they understand what the heart and soul of Fable is about, and how they can bring it forward for today's sensibilities," Booty said. "Some of the things that I've seen are so encouraging. They've got a great technology base and they've just got such a demonstrated commitment to crafting quality. During some of the first reviews, I shared a little bit of skepticism, but they've since put that to rest and I'm excited for everybody to see it when we're ready to show stuff."
The town of Bowerstone.
Fable will be set in Bowerstone--a key location throughout the series, which seems to have undergone some expansion since previous games. Bowerstone is set in a hilly environment but seems to span further than before, suggesting a more expansive open world could be explorable. Bloodstone will also be featured in the game.
Another notable development about the new Fable is that we've learned it will use the Forza game engine. Forza series creators and developers Turn 10 Studios posted an ad seeking a new software engineer to work with the ForzaTech engine, with the successful applicant being tasked with using the software to "support an open-world action RPG--Fable."
The new employee will also be responsible for adding "new features like ray tracing" to the game for some added visual horsepower, which will "have a major impact on three AAA titles in development" across two other Xbox franchises.
The ForzaTech engine has been used in the past to create some of the best-looking games for Xbox, helping to create worlds and vehicles that look both realistic and vibrant. Microsoft wanting to use some of its best technology to revive the Fable franchise makes sense as development on this project continues.
At the start of 2023, a rumor began circulating that the new Fable game had been rebooted internally and may be shifting to Unreal Engine and away from the ForzaTech Engine, but this was twice debunked by journalists from Windows Central and gamesindustry.biz.
Tom Gaulton, a lead engineer at Playground Games, celebrated his fourth year at the studio on Twitter in November 2021, expressing his joy at getting to work on Fable throughout that time. So yes, the new Fable has been in some form of development for nearly seven years at the time of writing this, it appears. Gaulton's tweet provided the first real indication as to how long the game has been in the works at the Microsoft-owned studio.
Playground Games released Forza Horizon 5 to great success in 2021, setting player records for Xbox. As mentioned, the studio has at least two internal development teams, so it's possible the new Fable will be developed alongside a potential Forza Horizon 6.
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Fable 4 trailers
Our first look at Fable didn't give any story or gameplay details, but it did certainly set a mood. The trailer showed off a fairy flitting her way through an idyllic fantasy forest, before suddenly getting eaten by a huge toad. That fits the irreverent tone the Fable series is known for. And notably, the trailer simply refers to it as "Fable," indicating this could be a reboot.
It would be a few years before we saw a new Fable trailer, but we got one--including what seemed like some hints of actual gameplay footage--in June 2023 during the Xbox Games Showcase. Though more than two years later, when this is being written, it would appear the game isn't tracking for a 2025 launch. British actor and comedian Richard Ayoade voices Dave, the oversized gardener who's not too fond of our heroes.
Following this, another Fable 4 trailer debuted at the Xbox Games Showcase in 2024. If you're familiar with the British sitcom Peep Show, you'll recognize the voice of Super Hans, Matt King, as Humphry the narrator. It's during this trailer that we see the player character in action, firing arrows and stabbing enemies. The trailer also gives a brief rundown of other heroes.
Pre-alpha footage of the new Fable debuted in February 2025. It looks like Fable will have a variety of different combat options, including wielding swords, hammers, and magic spells. There also seems to be seamless transition between cinematic cutscenes and combat. According to a previous report, Fable's combat will feel similar to that of The Witcher 3's.
Some brief glimpses of Fable gameplay were shown as well. Those clips are compiled in the video below, showing off some of the various environments, horseback riding, combat, and more. This is all labeled as being pre-alpha footage, however.
Fable | Pre-Alpha Gameplay Teaser#Fable #Xbox pic.twitter.com/1pWCRZyEgn
— Shinobi602 (@shinobi602) February 25, 2025
Fable 4 is a Reboot, Not a Sequel
During an extended interview with Xbox Wire, Fable general manager and game director Ralph Fulton revealed that Fable 4 isn’t a sequel at all. Instead, it will be a complete reboot that ignores the events of the original trilogy. Fulton called it a “new beginning” for the franchise, and felt it was necessary for the upcoming game to have its own identity.
“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. There’s a lot of faithfulness in the way we’ve approached this game--and certainly I think the inspiration of the original trilogy is really clear for everyone to see. But we wanted to make sure that this was a new beginning that would allow us to tell the stories that we wanted to tell.”
Fable 4 release date and platforms
The Fable release date will be during Fall 2026. Microsoft hasn’t set a specific date yet, but Fable will launch on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC, and it will be on Game Pass on day one.
Fable was originally expected to launch in 2025, but Microsoft announced that the game has been delayed to 2026.
Our hero is shown firing a bow at suspended enemies.
A New Hero Rises
As before, players will get to choose a lot of the details about their hero, but the backstory will be universal. The player’s character begins the game as a child who is on their way to becoming Albion’s first hero in a generation. However, the child is soon the only survivor of a magical attack on their village that leaves everyone else--including their beloved grandmother--turned to stone.
When the game jumps ahead in time, players will retake control of their character as an adult. They will also have the freedom to choose between immediately questing to break the curse over their village or taking their time to explore the world.
Good and Evil is No Longer a Binary Choice
In the original Fable trilogy, player characters underwent a process of morphing based upon their moral alignment. For example, if too many evil choices were made, the player’s hero took on a devilish appearance complete with horns. In the upcoming reboot, morphing is being completely left out of the game because morality is being treated as a more complex choice than simply being 100% good or 100% evil.
"Morality was always such an important part of the original trilogy," said Fulton during an interview with Xbox Wire. "I think that the original trilogy is inextricably linked with the concept of good and evil--but I think morality in video games has moved on in the intervening period. How we think about morality in the world today has really informed how we wanted to represent it as a game system in this game. That’s to say: There is no objective good, there is no objective evil. Really it's just about people's subjective opinions and what they choose to value in someone else when they make that judgment."
Fulton indicated that players can have different reputations in the various towns in the game, depending on the actions they choose to take. The game may not judge you for keeping tradition alive by kicking chickens, but the people of Albion will if they see your character behave that way.
According to Fulton, if players still turned into devil-like figures, the people would have prejudged them as evil. By doing away with the physical manifestations of being either good or evil, the intent was to let players define themselves by their choices.
A Living Population
Playground Games has been working on Fable’s open world for several years, and its effort has provided over 1,000 NPCs in Fable, all of whom can be interacted with on almost any level the player desires.
"You can talk to them, you can romance them, you can marry them," said Fulton. "You can divorce them or be divorced by them. You can have children with them. You can hire them. You can fire them. [NPCs] are kind of a game within a game, but they are such a unique, fundamental part of Fable. And I think one of the things that sets Fable apart from other open-world medieval fantasy RPGs is that it was uncuttable. We knew we had to deliver against this. I love that we've stuck with the ambition that we had right at the start of that."
Fulton went on to note that the developer took the time to develop daily routines for each of these characters, as well as their own distinct homes and personalities.
"The idea is that you can, in a very gamey sense, get to know [characters]," added Fulton. "You will learn the names of people in the settlement, if you spend enough time there, you'll kind of learn the things they like, their personality traits. You learn where they work. You can affect that as well. So there's tons of stuff that we've had to learn and do for the first time, but the experience of doing it has been wonderful.”
Additionally, every home or building in the game is explorable, and players can purchase their own homes as well.
The Cast of Fable
Thus far, only a single cast member is confirmed for Fable: The IT Crowd’s Richard Ayoade. Fulton teased the predominantly British cast, but declined to share any specifics at this time.
"We have an amazing cast in this game--and we'll talk more about the cast in future," said Fulton. "Again, that's in keeping with the original Fable games ... We’ve got a sensational cast of characters that you'll meet in the main story.”
No Dog Days
While there are over 1,000 NPCs, players will have to do without a canine companion in this adventure. Fulton acknowledged that the team originally planned to follow in the footsteps of the original Fable trilogy and include a dog, but they ultimately decided against it for “development reasons.”
"I don't need to go into any more detail than that, except to say there are a substantial number of people on the team who have yet to forgive me for that decision,” said Fulton.
Who's Developing Fable?
The originator of the Fable series, Peter Molyneux's Lionhead Studios, was shuttered in 2016 alongside the cancellation of Fable Legends, an asymmetrical multiplayer take on the series. There hasn't been a mainline entry in the Fable franchise since Fable 3 back in 2010.
The new Fable title is helmed by Playground Games. The studio is known for the Forza Horizon games, and while those are racing titles, the developers are known for their vast open worlds--which is a check in the pro column for a new Fable game. Playground created a second studio, separate from the Horizon team, back in 2017, to handle what was an unnamed game at the time. Now we know that game is Fable.
Anna Megill, the lead writer on Remedy Entertainment's Control and narrative director of Arkane Studios' Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, has revealed that she is heading up the Fable writing team. We have some information about that team as well, and it features some notable people from Batman: Arkham series developer Rocksteady. Batman: Arkham Knight's lead scriptwriter, Martin Lancaster, will serve as the game's narrative director, and is joined by Rocksteady veterans Craig Owens, another former Batman script writer, and cinematic director Martin Tan.
Playground Games lead engineer Tom Gaulton revealed in 2021 that he had been working on Fable for four years. That means that development began around 2017, meaning the entire process will have taken almost a decade by the time the game releases in 2026.
Other members of the Fable team include Will Kennedy (GTA V) as chief designer, Juan Fernández de Simón (Hellblade) as principal game designer, and Adam Olsson (The Division 2) as lead environmental artist. Naturally, many members of the team also previously worked on the Forza Horizon series.
While Playground might not seem to be the most natural or obvious fit to make a new Fable, Xbox boss Matt Booty said Playground is the right team for the project for a variety of reasons.
"They had a particular passion for the IP, and they also demonstrated that they understand what the heart and soul of Fable is about, and how they can bring it forward for today's sensibilities," Booty said. "Some of the things that I've seen are so encouraging. They've got a great technology base and they've just got such a demonstrated commitment to crafting quality. During some of the first reviews, I shared a little bit of skepticism, but they've since put that to rest and I'm excited for everybody to see it when we're ready to show stuff."
The town of Bowerstone.
Where is Fable 4 Set?
Fable will be set in Bowerstone--a key location throughout the series, which seems to have undergone some expansion since previous games. Bowerstone is set in a hilly environment but seems to span further than before, suggesting a more expansive open world could be explorable. Bloodstone will also be featured in the game.
What's New in Fable?
Another notable development about the new Fable is that we've learned it will use the Forza game engine. Forza series creators and developers Turn 10 Studios posted an ad seeking a new software engineer to work with the ForzaTech engine, with the successful applicant being tasked with using the software to "support an open-world action RPG--Fable."
The new employee will also be responsible for adding "new features like ray tracing" to the game for some added visual horsepower, which will "have a major impact on three AAA titles in development" across two other Xbox franchises.
The ForzaTech engine has been used in the past to create some of the best-looking games for Xbox, helping to create worlds and vehicles that look both realistic and vibrant. Microsoft wanting to use some of its best technology to revive the Fable franchise makes sense as development on this project continues.
At the start of 2023, a rumor began circulating that the new Fable game had been rebooted internally and may be shifting to Unreal Engine and away from the ForzaTech Engine, but this was twice debunked by journalists from Windows Central and gamesindustry.biz.
Tom Gaulton, a lead engineer at Playground Games, celebrated his fourth year at the studio on Twitter in November 2021, expressing his joy at getting to work on Fable throughout that time. So yes, the new Fable has been in some form of development for nearly seven years at the time of writing this, it appears. Gaulton's tweet provided the first real indication as to how long the game has been in the works at the Microsoft-owned studio.
Playground Games released Forza Horizon 5 to great success in 2021, setting player records for Xbox. As mentioned, the studio has at least two internal development teams, so it's possible the new Fable will be developed alongside a potential Forza Horizon 6.
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