Microsoft’s relative lack of high profile exclusives compared to Sony and Nintendo has been a hot topic for a while now, as for the moment, the biggest projects on the horizon are Sea of Thieves and the potentially troubled Crackdown 3, with new Halo and Gears sequels surely inevitable in the far-flung future.But there’s one IP that has the potential to get everyone, including skeptics like myself, excited about an Xbox One exclusive once again. That would be Fable 4, a game that fans have been begging Microsoft to make for ages, but with Lionshead shut down and Fable Legends canned, it seemed unlikely, even as Microsoft said the IP wasn’t necessarily dead.Turns out it may be very much alive.This recent round of speculation was sparked by a now-deleted tweet from former Lionshead programmer Don Williamson (via wccftech), who said “Mmm ok, having no inside information, I totally know who's building Fable 4 now. Interesting choice…” which at least implies the existence of the game, though not firm knowledge of who is making it.
Past rumors about Fable 4 indicate it’s being made by a UK-based studio, but when asked if it was Studio Gobo’s Electric Square, known to be working on a game for Microsoft, Williamson said the project was probably much too big for them.That leaves one very specific potential option, Playground Games.
a he UK developer is responsible for the Horizon spin-off of the Forza games, which are some of Microsoft’s best-reviewed titles. The idea is that Microsoft may have liked their work so much that they tasked them with something hugely important like Fable 4, despite their past history making racing games.This isn’t out of nowhere, as Playground has a listing for a game designer job that sounds uh, relevant:“You’ll join the team and the project at an early stage, giving you the rare opportunity to shape the future of an exciting, large-scale open world action / RPG AAA title from the outset.”When this listing was first posted it seemed to indicate it would be a new IP, but now it seems somewhat more likely that the project could actually be Fable 4. Granted, there are plenty of large-scale, open world action/RPG AAA games these days, but ones made by Microsoft-specific studios? That narrows it down quite a bit, and if Fable 4really is in the works, it seems likely that a trusted studio like Playground would get the call-up for it
This is extremely exciting to me as someone who loved the Fable series as its peak, with Fable 2 in particular being one of my favorite games of that era. Fable 3 lost its way a bit, and I was bummed when the Fable IP started turning into things like Kinect games or MOBA/Hero titles like Legends, but hopefully things get back on track with a full-on sequel, free of Molyneux’s craziness and the ham-handed idea to mash it into a different type of game entirely.Microsoft has obviously not confirmed the existence of Fable 4 yet (or else you would have heard a lot more about it), but this could end up being a big E3 reveal this year, which could be potentially show-stealing if handled correctly. Sea of Thieves looks fine, but I’m worried about Crackdown, so I’m hoping that something like this could come along and really upend things, something I think Halo 6 or Gears 5 wouldn’t accomplish. I've reached out to Microsoft for comment, but I'm guessing they're not going to want to talk about this yet.