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Fable would have been a no-brainer when Xbox was selecting titles to revive from its archive, but the original studio behind the series, Lionhead, has been closed for some time. This meant that if the franchise was to return, a new studio had to take over; Microsoft's acquisition of so many gave it a plethora of choices at hand. Given that Playground Games was selected to create the Forza Horizon series—a far cry from fantasy role-playing—it may have seemed strange.
Playground Games had relatively little expertise creating RPGs, yet their selection for the project had a logical basis. Head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty said in a Guardian interview that he had a look "at what Playground has done with the Horizon series – that attention to detail, the ability to represent these naturalistic landscapes." It was Playground Games' work with open worlds and their passion for the IP that made them stand out as the perfect studio for Fable.
Playground is recognized for realistic graphics and strong attention to detail, yet Lionhead never made Fable a realistic-looking game. It was original and styled differently. More crucially for Xbox, it was much appreciated by fans, which makes the closing of Lionhead puzzling. Although the studio dissolved for no one specific reason, it was working on Fable Legends when it closed, and development problems and delays dogged that project.
April 2006 saw Microsoft purchase Lionhead Studios; while they had a working relationship with them before to working on Fable 1. Not a lot went well with Fable Legends. The Xbox One's poor sales could not have generated the numbers required for the game to flourish, and many felt of previous products loaded to the gills with microtransactions, therefore there was debate about it being free-to-play. It didn't help that the game preceding this was Fable: The Journey, a Kinect-only game. Although Xbox had Lionhead create struggling spin-off games that might have contributed to their demise, players desired Fable 4.
Fable deviates from the regular activities of Playground Games. The realistic automobiles of Forza differ greatly from the amazing creatures of Fable and a whole separate crew means that the vision behind the game could also be somewhat different. The photo-realism of the people and surroundings and the art direction show this most. Though it's quite amazing, one wonders whether it can really reflect the core of the original games.
Choosing Playground Games has advantages since, like Lionhead was, it is a British studio. With the accents of people, the dry wit and humor, and the planet Albion—an historical variant name for Great Britain—Fable is renowned for including British culture in locations. The Industrial Revolution scene in Fable 3 most aptly illustrates this, and Playground Games aims to provide that unique, British appeal that defines the franchise.
Playground Games have a lot on their plate. Though it sounds like the company is headed in its own direction, Rebooting a game franchise as renowned and well-regarded as Fable is not going to be simple. Although realism is not usually connected with the Fable brand, the change in art design could help to highlight how far Xbox has come if the newest game can maintain the fun of the series alive and well.
Clearly, the change in studio and appearance will result in the game not being the Fable players from their early years remember. Leveraging the experience from the Forza series as well as the Xbox Series X|S, it will be larger (and hopefully better) than before. With some luck, Playground Games may offer a magnificent, magical adventure filled with charm and wit while winning a big win for Xbox.
After lying dormant for almost a decade, Fable will finally have a new title in its main series, with the latest installment aiming for a 2025 release. Known for its morality system and dry humor as well as its simplicity, the Fable series was a cornerstone of the Xbox's vast game library back in its prime. Though the current game looks like an Unreal Engine 5 tech demo, the games always had a stylized cartoon look and were never greatly recognized for their graphical realism.
Of course, the advancement of hardware can help to explain the variations in graphical fidelity. While this new Fable will be introduced in the midst of the console generation, two generations ahead, Fable 3 was started midway during the lifetime of the Xbox 360. Fable 3 is fourteen years old, and a graphical boost is expected for a current release, but the newest game is pushing the boundaries with its graphics as well as changing the artstyle in favor of a more realistic one.
A new trailer for Fable aired at the Xbox Games Showcase, showing more characters and confirming its release timetable. Playground Games was created in 2010 and until it was assigned Fable, it had solely worked on Forza games.
The early Fable games were flawed masterpieces. How can the new Fable game preserve the best features of its prequels while avoiding the same issues? The shift in Art Style is a solid beginning point for the game to break from its past, but it will have to be done carefully if it's going to be effective. Fans of the series will have to wait until 2025 to see if the new game will live up to the legacy of the originals.