Playground finally unveiled Fable, and it looks amazingly faithful the originals. The game will release in Autumn 2026 for PC/PS5/Xbox Series S and X.
At last, during the Xbox Developer Direct 2026 , British developer Playground Games unveiled their long-awaited reboot of the fantasy action RPG franchise Fable . Although it came only at the end of the presentation, let’s get it out of the way: Fable will be released this Autumn on PC, PlayStation 5 ( as per a recent rumor ), and Xbox Series S and X at the same time.
With that out of the way, the developer shared quite a bit of info on the game itself:
- There will be a character creator , so players won’t be forced to play as the red-headed female we’ve seen in previous trailers.
- Regardless of who your character is, they’ll begin as a child in a small village called Briar Hill. Eventually, they discover their heroic powers, which haven’t been seen in Albion in a generation. However, shortly afterward, they witness a mysterious individual turn all the village’s inhabitants ( including the player character’s grandmother ) into stone. That’s when they set out on a quest to reverse the spell, but also just to explore the world, which is fully open from this point onward.
- When it comes to locations, the capital city of Bowerstone returns, with its iconic castle, clock tower, and Heroes Guild hall. Confirming the concept art leak from a few days ago , Playground also said that the shady port town of Bloodstone is in. Here, the player character will find two gangs vying for power, as well as the so-called Cult of Shadows . In the wilderness, players will find rocky areas, swamps, and the like.
- The combat system features a mixture of classic melee action with blocks, counterattacks, and dodges, archery, and magic spells. Several enemies from the previous games are returning, but there are also a few new ones, such as a fire-breathing cockatrice . Moreover, features like friendly fire and weak spots have been confirmed.
- Critically, the developers have seemingly understood that Fable is more than just fighting. Just like in the original titles, there’s a whole other side of the game, which is about interacting with the non-player characters (NPCs). Playground is calling this the ’living world’ population : there are over a thousand unique NPCs with roles, personalities, and routines (homes, jobs, beds, et cetera). Players can interact with them in many ways, including taking jobs from them, giving them jobs, evicting them, romancing them, marrying them, having kids, divorcing, and much more.
- In true Fable spirit, the player’s actions will affect what they think of them , and the morality system is now much more nuanced than simply black or white. Everything you do seems to add ’tags’, which are then taken into consideration by the system to determine whether a certain NPC likes or dislikes the player. For example, in the presentation, we can see the player buying a big mansion, which adds the tags ‘rich’ and ’tycoon’. Then, speaking to a lower-class NPC, they immediately share their dislike for a ‘rich twat’ . Other NPCs might feel differently, though.
- There are also supposed to be larger, world-changing consequences. For example, the quest involving a giant character named Dave (played by Richard Ayoade , first i ntroduced in a previous trailer ) can be completed by either sparing or killing him . If you kill him, his giant corpse will remain strewn across an entire hill, thus affecting house prices (presumably because all that space cannot be used for building new homes). And yes, you can purchase every mansion in the game if you want to .
Originally announced at the 2020 Xbox Games Showcase , Fable was supposed to launch in 2025 but was delayed to 2026 to improve the final game’s quality and level of polish. That appears to have been the right decision; while we still need to learn a lot more, the game seems on the right track, and I say this as a big fan of the original games.
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