The Fable series made a very welcome comeback in 2020, as a short teaser revealed that another game was in the works. This will be the first mainline Fable game not to be made by the original devs, with Forza developer Playground taking over from the now-defunct Lionhead Studios. Now, it's being reported that Playground might not have the enthusiasm for the series that many would hope for.
According to sources speaking with VGC, the Fable team "isn't quite sure" what the new game should be. There's apparently word of taking inspiration from The Witcher series, but given this identity crisis, it's being said that the game is still "miles away". This suggests that Fable will, once again, skip Xbox's summer showcases, as the team is still deciding what direction the game should take.
In the VGC podcast, staff writer Jordan Middler shares what he knows or Fable's development - and it isn't the best news for long-suffering fans.
"I've certainly had conversations about the Fable project that just sounds like...there's a lot of not [being] quite sure what they want this Fable to be," says Middler (around the 16:50 mark).
"I'm not sure if you made an original Fable-style game now it would be what people want," Middler continues. "The term 'Witcher-like' was thrown about a lot to me. Which I feel will piss people off that like the original Fable."
Middler then theorises that the game is only being made because Fable was such a big name in the Xbox 360 days. Not necessarily because the current dev team had an idea for a new game.
VGC's Andy Robinson then adds that the new Fable has only now entered full production. In other words, don't expect to see anything resembling gameplay for a while.
At the very least, Xbox players in the mood for fantasy RPGs should be in for a treat soon enough. Earlier in the podcast, it was reported that Avowed could be Xbox's "next big thing" after Starfield. So it sounds like that development for that is going ahead as planned.