Fable will actually feature ‘mockumentary-style’ dialogue lines inspired by the TV show The Office, according to Game Director Ralph Fulton.
There’s no doubt that most of the curiosity surrounding the Xbox Developer Direct 2026 was directed at Fable . Sure, Forza Horizon 6 is massively anticipated on the heels of the excellent previous game, but it’s mostly a known quantity. Fable, on the other hand, has been missing for over fifteen years, and it’s now being rebooted by a new developer, Playground Games .
The presentation was very promising . As I noted in my article, it appears that the developers have successfully retained most of the spirit and gameplay features that made the original trilogy unique. However, there’s still a lot we have to discover about the game. A fresh interview with Game Director Ralph Fulton , published on the Xbox Wire blog , helps with that. In the interview, Fulton mentions that Fable will feature a ‘sensational cast of characters’, although it’s too early to unveil who will be playing them, except for Richard Ayoade , who was revealed nearly three years ago as Dave .
Then, Fulton went through the studio’s inspirations to get that British humour right. Ricky Gervais’s The Office was apparently the main inspiration, but not only for the tone: the show’s trademark mockumentary style wasn’t just reserved for the trailers; it will actually be found in the game.
We were inspired by the incredibly rich variety of British comedies that have been around over the last 20 years like ‘Peep Show,’ ‘The IT Crowd’ and so many others. We started with ‘The Office’, which again started out as quintessentially British, but also travels really, really well. Not just that IP, but a lot of the techniques and the devices that it’s popularized, you know. It’s that really grounded, awkward style of humour which really appeals to us. And the actors who have been in a lot of these shows – and indeed some of whom are in our game – they’re known all over the world.
The other cool thing about The Office is something we’ve kind of nicked. You’ve maybe seen in our trailers that we have a sort of mockumentary interview style. I think a lot of people assume we just did that for those trailers, but it’s actually a device we use throughout the game. I’ve never seen it in games before, but it allows you a way to really neatly tell a joke or drop a little bit of character detail in a way that would feel really clunky in a dialogue, but suddenly feels entirely natural when you do it to ‘camera’.
To be honest, I’m not too thrilled about this. While the mockumentary style made perfect sense for The Office, I’m not sure it will work just as well in a game like Fable. Sure, the British humour was always part of the series, but that and the mockumentary style are quite two different things. I’m not sure delivering lines to ‘camera’ makes sense when you’re supposed to be feeling immersed in the fantasy world of Albion .
That said, as I wrote earlier, everything else about Playground’s game looks spot on , so perhaps this will only be a minor annoyance - and perhaps it might even be fun from time to time. It won’t be too long until we find out: now we know that Fable will be released in Autumn for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S and X. If I were Microsoft and Playground, though, I’d make sure to release well before Grand Theft Auto VI , which is currently set for November 19, 2026.
As a side note, the game just won Wccftech’s most anticipated roleplaying game of 2026 category award from both staff and community.
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