Okay, so where the heck is Fable?

One of my biggest disappointments of the year so far was no new game footage or deep dive on Fable.

About all we’ve heard is that the game has been pushed back to 2026 – costing me a pint due to a lost bet with Hardware Writer Dash Wood. I had, maybe naively, thought that Fable would launch in the second half of the year with the goal of giving Xbox a big exclusive to finish 2025 on a high. But that wasn’t to be.

Now I’m ok with delays if it means polishing a game to a fine shine. Starfield was delayed, and while that didn’t help make it a high watermark game for Bethesda, it launched without a load of bugs.

However, I’d been expecting to see Fable in action. While we’ve seen brief clips of what’s been touted as in-game footage in 2023, followed by a trailer with more game action in 2024, and then a short snippet of pre-alpha ‘gameplay’ about five months ago,

While the little bits of game footage I’ve seen so far has me optimistic, we’ve not had anything that properly details how the game plays, what new features it could bring to the table, or just a deep dive into a next-generation Fable now that it’s under the wing of Playground Games.

Usually, with a game launching in around the next 12 months, we’ll have got a better idea of what to expect; even if it’s just brief snippets in trailers, like I remember was the case with Red Dead Redemption 2.

A fabled past

A flying fairy next to a sword hilt — (Image credit: Microsoft)

I remember way back when in E3 2007 when Fable 2 was some 14 months away from its 2008 release date, then boss of Lionhead Studios and gaming auteur Peter Molyneux did a dive into how the game will work with contextual one-button combat.

Like a good few of Molyneux’s promises, I’m not sure this quite came to fruition in the final release.

Of course, Playground Games isn’t Lionhead, and with E3 more dead than ever, we may have gone beyond the era of post-showcase game deep dives.

As the developer of Forza Horizon, perhaps Playground Games prefers flashier, fast trailers that leave some of the actual game mechanics to the imagination and journalist hands-on previews.

Nevertheless, I’m still a bit surprised we didn’t have any fresh Fable information this year so far, beyond the delay and pre-alpha footage.

Awaiting Albion

So when can we expect to see such stuff? I’d hazard a guess that we could get something towards the end of the year, maybe to juice up interest for people to buy Xbox Series X consoles heading into the holidays.

Or we could hear more early-ish next year, with Microsoft looking to kick off the year with some Xbox positivity, perhaps in one of the developer-led games roundups it does.

But then a lot of that depends on when Fable will get launched next year. If it’s towards the end of the year, we may not hear much until the next Xbox Games Showcase in June 2026.

My hope is we get more information sooner than later. As it stands, I don’t feel we’ve seen a particularly strong year for Xbox exclusive titles (such as they are with PC releases too), with Avowed arguably being one of the biggest so far. Last year, Xbox rounded out the year strongly with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which despite being available on PS5 felt like an Xbox game gave its day one release on Game Pass.

Microsoft looks set to have some strong titles to propel the second half of the year, with Grounded 2, Gears of War: Reloaded, and Outer Worlds 2. But I’m not convinced any of these will have a big impact; Gears of War is a contender but Reloaded is just a remaster of the first Gears game. So a game footage-heavy Fable trailer or a bit of a deep dive into what we could expect from the game under its new stewardship could be the shot in the arm I feel Xbox might still need this year, especially as there’s no word on The Elder Scrolls 6.

However, I do have a niggling concern: given the upheaval in Microsoft Gaming’s studios and the cancelation of games like the reboot of Perfect Dark – something I was looking forward to – potentially down to development woes, I’m a little concerned that development of Fable could have stalled.

Playground Games has a solid track record, but effectively rebooting Fable for new hardware and to make in compelling in the face of hugely impressive, system-driven RPGs and adventure games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring, while also retaining that sense of humor, style and sandbox elements of traditional Fable games, is likely a huge proposition.

I’d not be surprised if some information trickles out about Fable going through several iterations in its early development that perhaps means it’s not quite ready to be put in the preview limelight.

For what it’s worth, I have faith in the trailers I’ve seen so far and Playground Games’ ability to produce a compelling open-world game that’s also polished to a standard we’ve come to expect from the developer.

But I’ll need to hear something about Fable reasonably soon to ensure that faith remains burning away, rather than smoulder into nothing… along with my passion for Xbox.