We’ve known a few things for a while- Forza Horizon studio Playground Games is working on new open world RPG, which Phil Spencer himself more or less confirmed at E3 last month, and that this new RPG is rumored to be a Fable reboot, in part motivated by the success of Horizon: Zero Dawn last year.
With Playground Games’ primary talent being in making excellent, impeccable racing games, it seems like they are bringing people on board who will be able to assist them in making a quality RPG. GamesIndustry.biz reports that Playground Games has hired developers from BioWare, Rocksteady Games, Ninja Theory, and Guerrilla Games, plus hires from EA Motive- all of these, you will note, are studios known for creating cinematic story oriented games, with Guerrilla and BioWare specifically known for their RPGs.
The hires include principal environment artist Scotty Brown, who held the same position at EA Motive, and previously worked at BioWare as well; narrative director Martin Lancaster from Rocksteady, Chris Goodall from Ninja Theory in the capacity of principal animator, lead technician Rob den Dekker, who worked with Ninja Theory on QA, and actually has previously worked on Fable in quality assurance as well, and lead UI artist Joe McKernan, who worked at Playground until four years ago, when he left to join Guerrilla.
All of the hires are for the second studio Playground opened up, which is specifically for their big action RPG project; they’re great hires, and, coupled with the work culture and general talent at Playground Games, could help the developer turn out what could be a great revival of a beloved franchise.