After a couple of years of relentless leaks, rumours, and speculations of a Fable 4 being in the works at Forza Horizon studio Playground Games, yesterday Microsoft finally unveiled the next game in the fan-favourite role playing series. There was very little to latch on to in the trailer, with no gameplay shown and not much to give us an idea of what sort of a game it’s going to be, but the fact that a new Fable game is finally coming has been enough to send the hype for many into overdrive.
Now, new information is emerging that might be suggesting that the game might not be what many are expecting it to be. Shortly before the Xbox Games Showcase began, a French journalist over on Twitter (@CronoTK) compiled a list of all the games Microsoft would bring to the show (discovered by users over at ResetEra). Notably, they managed to get every single one of those announcements right, which might lend some credence to other information they have.
One bit of information in particular that catches the eye is that the next Fable is going to be an MMO, which is something the journalist re-iterated in a follow-up tweet, saying that the game won’t be a traditional Fable 4. In fact, on ResetEra, insiders are corroborating that. For instance, Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad (aka ZhugeX) suggests that it’s not going to be traditional MMO the way one might expect games in the genre to be, while ResetEra moderator Transistor says that the game is supposed to be an “MMO-Lite”.
This is, of course, unverified information, and until such time Microsoft officially announces something it’s best to take this with a grain of salt. That said, Microsoft incorporating MMO elements in the next Fable wouldn’t be that far-fetched, especially seeing as how they attempted to take a more online-focused approach with the cancelled Fable Legends.
Even with the upcoming Halo Infinite, in fact, they have plans to turn the game into their “Halo platform” for the next 10 years, so live services clearly seem to be big at Microsoft.