Which is easy to forget, especially since its last few gameplay demos left players mixed due to the combat. Playground spoke about the “breadth and depth” it wanted to offer, but in an interview with EDGE magazine (transcription via GamesRadar), associate director Will Kennedy reaffirmed another important factor: Approachability.

Why? Because there’s a “legacy” among the original titles for being “quite approachable, so that’s something we kept in mind while developing our combat system.”

However, associate director Craig Littler brought up other examples of the depth that the team is aiming for. Decapitating Hollow Folk, for example, makes it so that “they don’t know where to go […] When you do that to a ranged enemy […] they’re just firing off in every direction.”

And even if you like the combat but want something more, especially with how the older games leaned into role-playing, not every quest follows the same formula. “There are quests that are much broader. More exploration, even a puzzle or two along the way. One of the things we’re really proud about is the variety of activities and how they all harmonize to tell a story that you feel really involved in,” says Kennedy.

Combined with the life sim activities and building a complex reputation, it should help Fable exist far beyond the 15 to 20 hours required to finish its story (not including the equivalent hours for the exploration and side content).

Of course, with its launch set for February 23rd, 2027, on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, Playground still has time to polish some of the more mundane aspects. And who knows? The combat could very well shine by then. Stay tuned for updates in the meantime.

“We’ll say that we have the list, but we’re not going to spoil the surprise,” said Littler.

The statement came specifically in response to a question about whether Fable will have some comedy-centric achievements/trophies like the previous games in the franchise have featured. Along with the typical RPG achievements that one would expect, like getting the good or evil ending for the story, or unlocking high-level magic spells, Fable 2 and 3 also included some more unconventional achievements that tasked players with doing silly things.

A notable example of this would be one that had players chase down chickens across the world and kick them. Another one had them destroy a skeleton warrior’s limbs before shooting them in the head as a reference to the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Fable’s director, Ralph Fulton, has previously spoken about how the entire development team is made up of fans of the RPG franchise. Earlier this month, he noted that the studio even managed to attract developers from around the world who joined up just to work on Fable.

“I’ll tell you, every single member – and I can say this without qualification – every single member of the team is first and foremost a Fable fan. We built this team from scratch, and many of them, if not to say most of them, have traveled from all over the world to our little town in the middle of Warwickshire in England. And the reason they did that? It wasn’t to work for Playground Games.”

“Maybe that was a factor, but each and every one of them came here because they’re a Fable fan. They love the series, they want to bring it back. So, that’s the thing. The first day they walked into the studio, what they had in common with everyone else was that they were here to make a great Fable game. And I think you can sense that; you can feel that from the game that they’ve made.”

Fulton has also spoken about how Playground Games took pride in working on an RPG despite the studio’s reputation as one that primarily develops racing games. “I think there was a little bit of pride in proving we could cut it in a different genre,” he said in an interview. However, he also noted that Fable being open-world feels a bit familiar to the studio despite its lack of cars.

“It made sense not to fall too far from [Forza] Horizon. This project definitely wasn’t going to have cars, but open worlds felt like an area where we had transferable skills.”

Fable is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on February 23rd.

“I’ll tell you, every single member – and I can say this without qualification – every single member of the team is first and foremost a Fable fan. We built this team from scratch, and many of them, if not to say most of them, have traveled from all over the world to our little town in the middle of Warwickshire in England. And the reason they did that? It wasn’t to work for Playground Games.”

“Maybe that was a factor, but each and every one of them came here because they’re a Fable fan. They love the series, they want to bring it back. So, that’s the thing. The first day they walked into the studio, what they had in common with everyone else was that they were here to make a great Fable game. And I think you can sense that; you can feel that from the game that they’ve made.”

Further in the same interview, Fulton also revealed that he is very excited about how players are going to react to Fable’s main story.

“People are going to be blown away by our story. It’s packed with memorable characters. I think the story itself is super interesting, and I think they’re going to get a real kick out of it. There are some twists and turns along the way. In true Fable fashion, the game ends with a huge, momentous choice, which, I think, is going to stop people in their tracks and really make them think about not just what they’re going to do, but what it means about them.”

On the subject of Fable’s story and its ending, earlier this month, Fulton had also spoken about how the team had “relentlessly pursued quality” when it came to wrapping up the core narrative.

“It’s easy to look at industry metrics saying 100% of people start a game and only 25% finish, and decide not to invest heavily in the finale. But we relentlessly pursued quality here. In great Fable fashion, it culminates in a choice that really challenges you to think about who you are, with a real personal cost to weigh against the outcome.”

Fable is an action RPG coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Many details about the title have been revealed in recent months, along with the fact that it is slated for release on February 23rd, 2027. While it was originally going to come out in late 2026, Fulton expressed relief that the title would be avoiding the chaotic release window near the year’s end, which is marked by major titles like Grand Theft Auto 6.

Rumors about development troubles aside, The Guardian’s recent interview with Playground Games co-founder and game director Ralph Fulton reveals it’s been in the works since 2016. By launch, it will have racked up nearly 11 years of production time, which could mean a ridiculous budget (as other rumors have suggested).

As for how it could have survived cancellation – which Microsoft is no stranger to with the franchise – it could be because Fable is “an important game.”

“I genuinely think Fable is an important game. What has protected us over a long development cycle is that so many people within Xbox view Fable as vital to the DNA of the platform,” says Fulton.

“I would go a step further and say it’s important to video games as a whole. It offers a combination of elements that simply doesn’t exist anywhere else.” Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other game with 1,000 hand-crafted NPCs with full voice acting or a system that lets you build multiple reputations across its world. So that counts for something.

However, the pressure is still on for Fable to deliver when it launches on February 23rd, 2027, for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out Fulton’s thoughts on the ending and how it ensured it met the studio’s quality bar.

Speaking to The Guardian, game director Ralph Fulton noted that the main quest is relatively “low-stakes to let you explore and engage with the different systems, whether it’s building a reputation or buying real estate. But when it’s time for the finale, the ending is what matters, and in that department, Playground “relentlessly pursued quality.”

“It’s easy to look at industry metrics saying 100% of people start a game and only 25% finish, and decide not to invest heavily in the finale. But we relentlessly pursued quality here. In great Fable fashion, it culminates in a choice that really challenges you to think about who you are, with a real personal cost to weigh against the outcome.”

Considering how Fable 2 infamously ended, that sounds a lot more appealing. Of course, we’ll have to wait and learn more about the circumstances leading up to that choice, and whether your reputation or anything else plays a role.

Regardless of how invested you are in the story, it won’t take long to finish. It’s only 15 to 20 hours long, with an additional 15 to 20 hours to mop up any side content. The real appeal is the life systems, which should, theoretically, lead to “endless” replayability.

Fable launches on February 23rd, 2027, for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

During a Q&A session at the trade fair attended by TechRadar, associate game director Will Kennedy said, “When we’re talking about being faithful to the classic franchise, we thought about how there was an approachability to combat there. And we knew that we wanted to be able to capture some of that for our game as well. But at the same time, we’re making a game for gaming today.

“We wanted there to be breadth and depth to it, so we landed on wanting to have style-weaving combat. We wanted to be able to move from move to move really smoothly and easily, and that combined with the level expression that you’ve got.”

To that end, the developer is offering complete freedom to tailor your loadout, while ensuring “you have a really broad, deep, rich suite of options to choose from” early on. And while the gameplay may tell a different story depending on who you ask, Kennedy said the team is “really proud” and said the game feels “satisfying.”

“We’ve landed somewhere that is still approachable but has that depth that we want and so therefore is faithful but works in gaming today as well for players, which is something to be proud of.”

Thus far, we’ve seen the player character wield a sword and shield, a two-handed hammer, and a rapid-fire crossbow. Spells range from throwing fireballs and sending psychic daggers to transforming enemies into chickens. While the lack of responsiveness for one boss stuck out like a sore thumb, combat against regular enemies has admittedly looked more solid.

Of course, with Fable out on February 23rd, 2027, for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, it could look far better as we near launch. Stay tuned for updates, and in the meantime, check out how much playtime it should offer. Spoilers: If a Final Fantasy 7 Revelation-like runtime scares you, this should be far more manageable.

He explained that, while the randomized NPC creator tool would have helped save quite a bit of time and energy, he noted that the NPCs created this way didn’t quite make much sense. To avoid having nonsensical characters roaming around the game’s world, the team instead decided to handcraft the NPCs.

“We individually picked everything about every NPC to make it into an NPC that you could read, that made sense top to bottom. We originally had a tool that would randomize it, and just ‘roll’ an NPC, and that would have been a massive labor-saving device. That would have saved us so much time, but what we found was, they just didn’t make as much sense.”

Back in January, Fulton had spoken about how handcrafting all of these NPCs also led Playground Games to figuring out a “very different way of building a game”. He discussed how the various characters throughout the game have their own lives to live, and the challenge this presented to the development team.

“They’ll get up, they’ll go to work, they’ll have some leisure time, they’ll go back to their home, and they’ll go to bed,” he said about the NPCs.

“And immediately, you know, when you hear that, certainly as a developer, you start going, ‘Oh, okay, so every NPC, and there’s more than 1,000 of them in the game, needs a bed.’ And you have that conversation with the environment art team, and they’re like, ‘they need what now?’ Which is, it brings you to a very different way of building a game, because it needs to be functional as well as beautiful.”

At the time, he had noted that the team abandoned the idea of procedurally generating NPCs “because we wanted to craft every one of these NPCs from their name, to their appearance, to their personality traits, to that moral worldview that I talked about.”

The team has also gone on the record to note that it didn’t use any generative AI to create voice work for the over 1,000 NPCs that populate Fable’s Albion. “We’ve got a really fantastic cast of actors who have come in and recorded tons and tons of dialogue, which is what you’ve heard today voicing our NPCs,” said Playground Games. “All of our NPCs are fully voiced. We cast around 100 actors to voice our Living Population alone.”

Fable is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release on February 23rd, 2027. Fulton had spoken about avoiding the “chaotic” release window at the end of 2026 that is populated by heavy-hitters like Control Resonant, Gears of War: E-Day, and Grand Theft Auto 6.

“We have around 15-20 hours of mainline quest gameplay; we have around 15-20 of side and open-world exploration content gameplay. And then, of course, the life systems are limitless, so you can play them for as long as you want.”

When another individual pointed out that it’s “not a huge game,” associate game director Craig Littler said, “As Will just said, you can literally play it forever if that’s what you want to do.”

What the duo are referring to is the multitude of systems, including blacksmithing, interacting with over 1,000 NPCs and either getting on their good side or turning them into sworn enemies, owning properties, starting a family and more. Since your reputation differs in every town, you can craft unique identities based on your decisions.

How long that can keep players entertained remains to be seen. But it is good news for those looking for a reasonably sized story and substantial side quests to complete. It won’t beat Grand Theft Auto 6’s scale or story length anytime soon, but it doesn’t have to.

Fable launches on February 23rd, 2027 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Head here to learn more about how Playground Games is approaching upgrades and aiming for meaningful progression over small increments. Alternatively, you can check out some extensive combat gameplay here.

What you shouldn’t expect, however, is incremental upgrades, at least according to creative directors Will Kennedy and Craig Littler. Speaking to Gamespot at Gamescom, Kennedy said, “We want our upgrades to be what we call meaningfully meaningful. So you don’t get things like, ‘Oh, 1% damage,’ and things like that. What you get is bigger swings. A good example is the weapon spell we showed.

“When you first get the weapon spell, you can do a suspend part up in the air. But one of the upgrades you experience is the slam, which really expands the utility and impact of the spell. There are lots of examples like that.”

Beyond upgrading abilities (and weapons, which remain distinct), you can also find items in chests that improve your status in society. Littler notes, “You might find a gift, for example, that would work with the life system. I don’t know what kind of gifts you would find in an old mine, probably a Bag of Blistering or something, but once you’ve collected that, you can then use that on the NPCs around the world.”

While we still don’t have much of a grasp on build variety or what benefits loot can offer, Playground Games has showcased the different weapon types. Aside from the typical sword and shield, players can wield a two-handed greathammer, a bow, and a crossbow. There’s been some criticism of combat after its quest gameplay, but the more extensive showcase focused on battling the Hollowfolk and Lantern Keeper looked better.

Fable is out on February 23rd, 2027, for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, so there’s still time to polish the mechanics. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime, and head here to learn why Playground Games isn’t necessarily afraid to go toe-to-toe with the likes of God of War Laufey.

“I think the rationale behind moving us out of October, the date that we were in previously, is pretty apparent to everybody. I feel great about that. I mean, I was really looking forward to shipping this game this year. I didn’t want to have to do another January 1st speech to the team about ‘this is the year we ship Fable,’ which I’m now going to have to do. But the rationale for it is absolutely sound. I’m glad that we’re avoiding that chaotic window.”

It is worth noting that, even without taking Grand Theft Auto 6 into account, October would have been an incredibly chaotic release window due to the upcoming releases of several major games, including Control Resonant, Marvel’s Wolverine, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword coming out at around the same time. Fable would have also had to compete with fellow Xbox title Gears of War: E-Day.

As for the also-crowded early 2027 window, Fulton said that the studio doesn’t “run scared of other big games.” Rather, “We’re a big game ourselves. We hold ourselves to high standards. I’m happy to go toe-to-toe with a bunch of other games. There’s just one that I’m happy to avoid entirely.”

The first few months of 2027 are also packed with several high-profile game releases, including Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Stranger Than Heaven, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 14: Evercold, Crystal Dynamics’ and Flying Wild Hog’s Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, the PS5-exclusive God of War Laufey, and Atlus’ Persona 4 Revival. All of these games are coming out before Fable, and even the following few months will be packed with more major games like Metro 2039 and Exodus.

As for Fable, more details about the title were revealed during Xbox’s Gamescom showcase, including one that had the player taking part in an extensive quest that revolves around saving the Hero’s Guild from a local bandit. Along with core gameplay like combat and conversations, the video also showed off the upcoming RPG’s unique storytelling side that involved characters often having talking head sequences where they spoke directly to the camera.

More combat was shown in another showcase, giving us a glimpse at how the Hero can take on more fantastical creatures like wraiths and reanimated skeletons. The title will see the return of the free-form combat system that the franchise is known for, giving the player the freedom to switch between melee, ranged, and magic at any moment. The battle against a Lantern Keeper showed this off quite well, giving us a look at how the same battle could be taken on in a variety of ways depending on the tools available to the player.

Fable is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.