The shuttering of Lionhead Studios not so long ago wasn’t sad just simply because the studio would no longer be operational, or because their upcoming title Fable Legends had been cancelled, but also because it threw the future of the entire Fable franchise into jeopardy. Fable has to be one of the most beloved Xbox franchises, in spite of all its ups and downs- which is why we’re incredibly excited about this report we’re bringing to you today.
Don Williamson, who used to be the Lead Engine Programmer at Lionhead Studios at one time, recently took to Twitter and claimed that, in spite of having no insider info, he was pretty certain of who Microsoft had entrusted with working on Fable 4. “Having no inside information, I totally know who’s building Fable 4 now,” Williamson wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted, before adding- “Interesting choice…”
When asked by WCCFTech whether this was a studio based in Brighton (hinting, of course, at Studio Gobo’s Electric Square), Williamson responded that no studio in Brighton was big enough to take on a project as major as Fable. Which, of course, narrows down the other possible studios by quite a lot. The likeliest, then, seems to be Forza Horizon developer Playground Studios.
As we recently reported, Playground Studios is looking to hire people to work on a new, AAA action-RPG, and Fable 4 certainly seems to fit that description. The studio is also certainly capable of handling big budget projects, and handling them quite well, as the three Forza Horizon games have shown. What’s more, that would most definitely qualify as an “interesting choice”, as Williamson put it.
All of this is, of course, unconfirmed, and Williamson has stressed that he doesn’t have any insider info, so take this all with a grain of salt. That said, this definitely qualifies as rather interesting, and I for one wouldn’t mind seeing a mainline Fable title being developed by Playground. Stay tuned to GamingBolt, and we’ll keep you updated on this story as it develops.