Players around the world have been clambering for any nugget of news relating to the upcoming Fable reboot, currently in development at Forza Horizon developer, Playground Games. Recent rumours, stemming from 4Chan and echoed by Xbox insider IdleSloth had led players to worry that the game’s development was in a state of turmoil, with work on the project needing to be rebooted.
IdleSloth had summarised what had been reported on 4Chan, saying
(Rumor) Fable has been restarted internally
– The most recent build of the new Fable was deemed “unplayable” by most of the team
– Basiccally starting from scratch in Unreal, the old Forzatech version will never see the light of day
This reporting had set off a range of differing opinions from within the media and influencer scene, from YouTuber, Xbox fan, and co-host of PlayStation centric podcast, Sacred Symbols, Chris Ray Gun quoting the IdleSloth tweet, adding, “This isn’t confirmed, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Microsoft is fucking horrible at managing their projects. Gears in limbo, Halo on a respirator, Scalebound dead, Perfect Dark on fire. Why would Fable fair any better?” Meanwhile GamesIndustry.biz’s Christopher Dring was far more decisive, saying “This is not true” in another quote-tweet of IdleSloth’s shared details.
Certainly, the news of the game being in turmoil flew in the face of other reports, reports that suggest that the team was continuing to staff up. Recently Andrew Walsh, an award-winning Narrative Lead, having worked on a range of projects including Horizon Forbidden West, the upcoming Horizon Call Of The Mountain, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, the Prince Of Persia 2008 reboot, and even the failed Fable multiplayer game, Fable Legends, announced that he would be returning to the world of Albion to assist Playground Games on the upcoming project. “So, Albion has beckoned once again. I’m delighted to announce that I’ve had the chance to join the wonderful team @WeArePlayground working on the new #Fable!” he said in October.
In the hours since Dring and others had expressed their counter-views IdleSloth has now removed their tweet, perhaps due to the responses, perhaps due to some other sources coming out and correcting the situation for them.
Fable was debuted in July 2020, and while little is still known about the game, we know the game is a next-gen exclusive, with the official Fable website saying, “Explore a land of fantastical creatures and wondrous places. Developed by Playground Games for Xbox Series X|S and Windows 10.” No release date nor window has been announced.