Xbox’s Next Big RPG ‘Sticks the Landing,’ Promises Dev
Overview & Key Takeaways
Xbox's long-gestating Fable reboot nails the ending according to the RPG's director
Xbox has a lot riding on Fable. The RPG from Playground Games seeks to revive a beloved series that has been dormant for a decade but has faced a long development punctuated by multiple delays. This comes amid multiple rounds of layoffs, studio closures, and cancellations at Xbox. Fable is set for release on Feb. 23, 2027, and its director assures fans it will be worth the wait.
In an interview with The Guardian, director Ralph Fulton shared that the team has put a lot of care into making sure the story has an appropriately climactic ending, promising that they "stick the landing." Fulton continued that while industry metrics may say only a fraction of players who start a game finish it, the Fable team "relentlessly pursued quality" in the game's finale. He teased that Fable "culminates in a choice that really challenges you to think about who you are, with a real personal cost to weigh against the outcome."
That's good news for fans of the series who may be worried about a repeat of Fable 2. While the 2008 RPG is widely thought to be the best in the series, it's also widely thought to have a terrible ending that feels anticlimactic and not in line with the series' love of player freedom. Fulton also notes that the only point in the game the player will be locked into the main story will be during the ending. Before that, the main quest feels low-stakes enough that players are comfortable exploring the world and engaging in its many systems.
What we know about Xbox's Fable reboot
Image: Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios
As with previous games in the series, the Fable reboot will involve a plethora of systems that encourage player freedom. An extended gameplay reveal showed that players can fall in love, get married, have kids, buy a house, buy a business, and more. You can even romance multiple people and buy every home and business in the game's setting of Albion if you want to rule the world. All these actions will have consequences, and the game will have a reputation system to keep track of. Combat has also been overhauled, and it feels great.
Developer Playground games is best known for the open-world driving Forza Horizon series on Xbox and Fable will be its first RPG. The game will also have a star-studded cast that includes big names like Hayley Atwell, Richard Ayoade, Matt King, Natasia Demetriou, and more. Even with so much to do, Fable will only take around 15–20 hours to complete the main story. Despite a new focus on console exclusivity, Xbox still plans to release Fable on PlayStation 5 as well as Xbox Series X and Windows PC.
