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 a 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.

Bon, je suis quand même bien déçu.
Surtout sur la forme en fait. Je n'ai rien vu qui m'arrache la mâchoire (j'attends de voir en 4K mais j'y crois pas). Et surtout, aucun gameplay si ce n'est Halo Infinite.
Avowed et Warhammer ont l'air cool mais on a rien vu. #XboxGamesShowcase https://t.co/Gd2OlRfetu pic.twitter.com/N5vZ0HxlLi

— C[h]rono Trigger[ed] (@CronoTK) July 23, 2020

Et pour le plus grand bonheur de @SireGoupil : un jeu dans l'univers de FABLE.
Mais en MMO (désolé, pas FABLE 4).

— C[h]rono Trigger[ed] (@CronoTK) July 23, 2020

Later this week, Microsoft will be hosting an Xbox Series X showcase focused on first-party titles from Xbox Game Studios. One such title that’s rumored to have been in development is Fable 4 with Forza Horizon developer Playground Games at the helm. According to insider Klobrille, said announcement won’t be accompanied by a gameplay demo.

“Just to get that expectation right, I don’t think anyone should expect a Fable announcement with a gameplay demo like what Halo Infinite will do,” he said on ResetEra. Instead, the reveal will apparently be akin to Sony’s Horizon: Forbidden West announcement. “I guess this will rather be in the Horizon II-trailer-like ballpark, so an in-engine trailer but somewhat indicative of what to expect.”

Since last year, there have been leaks about the next Fable including details on its world building and combat. It even appeared on Mixer at one point (though nothing was actually shown). Microsoft recently applied to have the trademark renewed, further sparking discussion of a reveal so we’ll have to wait and see what the showcase has to offer.

The Xbox Series X first-party showcase is set for July 23rd at 9 AM PT. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Rumours of a Fable 4 being developed by Playground Games have frequented headlines for well over a couple of years at this point, to the point that it’s become something of an open secret. With the Xbox Series X launching later this year, Playground’s long-in-development unannounced open world RPG is the game that has tickled audiences’ curiosity the most, and it’s quite likely that we might end up seeing it soon.

Just recently, in fact, Microsoft applied for a trademark renewal for Fable– while that by itself is nothing to pay too much mind to, it’s worth noting that in the application, they have stated their intent to use the trademark in the coming future.

A trademark renewal application by itself doesn’t mean much – companies do it all the time, even for properties in disuse – but the Fable rumours have refused to go away. Last year around E3, Fable 4’s name popped up on Microsoft’s soon-to-be-defunct streaming platform in Mixer. Though there was no E3 this year, many have speculated that the rumoured Fable game will be revealed at the Xbox Series X first party showcase later this month.

With Microsoft now having an impressive number of big studios under their first party umbrella, there have been quite a lot of questions about what these developers are working on. There has, of course, been speculation, and that speculation has brought up revivals of two Microsoft-owned IP in particular- Fable and Perfect Dark, developed, supposedly, by Playground Games and The Initiative respectively.

Recently, journalist Tom Warren discovered locked placeholder Twitter handles for both properties, with one being followed by an Xbox employee and the other being registered to a Microsoft email address. That, as you may imagine, kicked the speculation regarding both into hyperdrive once again. Microsoft, however, states that these handles don’t mean much.

On Twitter, Xbox’s GM of marketing Aaron Greenberg clarified that these are just placeholder accounts made to “secure social handles for our IP.” Greenberg said that it’s standard practice, and the handles have “been inactive for years.”

“I know everyone is hungry for news, but sorry to get your hopes up,” he said.

That doesn’t, of course, necessarily mean that those games are not going to be revealed- it just means that these Twitter accounts don’t have much to do with that possibility. With Microsoft’s first party event planed for July, we’ll know soon enough if they do get revealed, so stay tuned.

https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1277060101824634880

Grounded

After The Outer Worlds, Obsidian Entertainment’s first exclusive title for Xbox One since being acquired is…something different. It’s “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” meets survival sandbox gameplay with co-op support. You’ll collect resources, craft different equipment and ultimately battle giant bugs. It’s intriguing, if unexpected, and will release in Spring 2020.

That Playground Games are working on Fable 4 is an open secret in the industry at this point. Rumours about the same first started emerging early last year, which were further propounded by job ads that mentioned the studio was working on a AAA open world RPG. The studio’s eventual acquisition by Microsoft only served to add more fuel to the fire.

Now, we have some interesting development updates on the title. As spotted by VGC, Playground Games’ Fable 4 team has hired multiple people for its writing team, and most of them were members of the writing team on Rocksteady Studios’ Batman: Arkham Knight in 2015. Martin Lancaster’s LinkedIn profile mentions that he’s now the Narrative Director at Playground, after having been at Rocksteady for nearly five years. Craig Owens is principal scriptwriter. Finally, their latest hire is Kim MacAskill, who joined in August as a senior scriptwriter.

Earlier this year, Fable 4 appeared on Microsoft’s Mixer, further solidifying speculation that the game was in development, while not long afterward, a potential leak provided various details on the game. Either way, it’s probably going to be a while before we hear anything official about Fable 4, so don’t hold your breath for an announcement anytime soon.

Fable 4 is a game that’s been in the rumour mill for a while now. As the rumour goes, Forza Horizon custodians Playground Games have been put in charge of bringing the fantasy franchise back from the dead, and it’s a game that we keep hearing whispers about here and there.

A new leak recently emerged on Reddit, listing out new details about the game, while being accompanied with a video that showed some of the game. While the video itself is gone by now (and no one seems to have made a mirror), details that arose from the leak still seem to have been preserved.

Fable 4, as per this leak, is going to be a soft reboot of the series. It’s going to be completely open world, and medieval themed, while also having new continents and locations. In context of the story, that is reconciled by the backstory that the Spire was rebuilt by a mad king, who used it to wish an asteroid strike on the planet, something that he wished would happen again in the distant future as well.

“Eons” later, the world has changed, and almost everything is new and different. Players will be tasked with stopping the looming asteroid strike. Through a demon door, players will also be able to visit a different planet, where Theresa and a Heroes Guild are preserved. Jack of Blades returns as well.

Some interesting gameplay details have emerged as well, as part of this leak. The game will offer both, first and third person perspective options, while guns won’t include any guns. The game’s allegedly being built on Unreal Engine, there’s going to be an in-depth character creator, as well as multiplayer.

Meanwhile, there’s also supposedly going to be a town and city building mechanic in the game, which will figure into the game’s main quest heavily. However, players will be able to completely ignore he main quest and “never become the hero” – as the leak puts it – should they wish to do so.

As is always the case, it’s best to take this leak with a grain of salt. The details sound what any Fable fan would have hoped for, but till such time it gets officially confirmed (if it does), file it away as a rumour.

That said, it might get confirmed one way or another very soon- not too long ago (just a few days back, in fact), a possible leak may have outed that the game will be at Microsoft’s E3 press event in a few days’ time, so if things go well, we might just end up hearing more about the game very soon.

Rumours that Playground Games is working on a new Fable continue to gain ground. It seems the game has appeared as a game on Mixer, a live-streaming platform for Windows 10 and Xbox One owned by Microsoft. Reddit user snow9876 posted a screenshot of the game’s name right under Fable 1, 2, and 3.

While that isn’t solid confirmation that Fable 4 is coming, it doesn’t seem to be a custom game name either. Regardless, we do know Playground Games is working on a new “triple A open world action RPG”, having opened a new studio and hired for numerous positions on the same. Rumours about Fable 4 being in development for Xbox One has also been doing the rounds since January 2018.

An announcement at E3 2019 wouldn’t be too far-fetched, especially since Playground Games was acquired by Microsoft last year. Taking place on June 9th, Microsoft’s E3 2019 presser will apparently be its longest ever. A number of titles, like Halo Infinite, Cyberpunk 2077, and FromSoftware’s next game are rumoured to appear. Stay tuned to see if Fable 4 makes that list or not.

PlatinumGames’ Game “That Has Never Been Done Before”

There’s a lot going on with PlatinumGames. It’s even developing an exclusive game for Apple’s Arcade platform. Even with these titles in development, studio head Atsushi Inaba confirmed that two of its projects would be “new independent IPs owned entirely by the studio”. Speaking to VideoGamesChronicle, Inaba also said that, “Right now we’re in the middle of designing something that has never been done before. I know a lot of people say that, but the game we’re working on truly is unlike anything else. Even for our varied history of veteran game developers, this is something that has never been designed before.” 2019 is an important all-round year for releases at PlatinumGames but what could make these IPs stand out? Hopefully E3 provides some answers.

Of the five studio acquisitions Microsoft announced at E3 2018, Playground Games was perhaps the least surprising, and the one that made the most sense. The studio had already been working closely and very successfully with Microsoft for a few years with the Forza Horizon games, and not a lot of people were surprised when the two parties formalized their partnership.

According to the studio’s chief creative officer Ralph Fulton though, it wasn’t just their past experiences together that influenced the decision, but also what Playground were working on for the future. Speaking to Edge in their Christmas issue (Issue 326), Fulton said that the unannounced open world RPG Playground’s second team is working on, which has been heavily rumoured to be Fable 4, was a major factor in the deal between them and Microsoft.

“It definitely influenced our decision, and Xbox’s decision, to take this step together,” Fulton said. “It wouldn’t take a genius to work out that they were both with Xbox. The amount of content we’re going to be bringing to the family was a crucial factor, there.”

According to studio director Gavin Raeburn, Playground wanted to achieve success in a different genre, after already have done so with the Forza Horizon games. “We felt we’d achieved success in racing, and wanted to continue that,” Raeburn said, echoing something Fulton has said earlier as well. “We love the genre. But we felt that if we wanted to really make a milestone for the studio, we should look for success in a different genre as well. Again it made sense to partner with Microsoft, and they were really supportive.”

Fulton also went on to talk about the benefits Playground Games has been able to leverage now that they’re part of Microsoft’s first party lineup, which mostly boils down to them being able to freely collaborate and communicate with fellow Microsoft studios like The Coalition, 343 Industries, and Ninja Theory.

“We could talk to other studios, but it had to be filtered, you had to go through certain channels,” he said. “If we wanted to find out about new technology or initiatives that were coming through, there was a time and a place for that to happen, and it was usually just behind the curve. Now that we’re a first party studio, I can pick up the phone and dial out to 343 Studios, The Coalition, Ninja Theory – we can start talking about technology, tools, all of those conversations are easy to have.

“And hopefully, we can get involved with future planning for consoles and other initiatives. Even though not a great deal of time has passed since the acquisition – just before E3, end of May – there are already things we’ve had disclosed to us that we didn’t know.”

As for when we might hear something more concrete about whatever it is that Playground Games is working on, don’t expect official word on it any time soon.