Control's Anna Megill Will Be Lead Writer On The New Fable

I enjoyed Control and thought that was well written so a good fit. I do hope we get at least one medieval joke though... It's not Fable without a slightly crass joke here and there.

This is interesting, nice!

I wonder what that ubisoft project was fable creed ....

"will be"? so this game really aint comin out anytime soon?

They haven’t even started writing yet?!

I originally said this would be a 2022 game but you’ll be lucky to get this before end of 2023 😂

I’m calling it now, Q4 2024 release date.

@12TerribleFLOPS that's the main thing i got out of this

So.......

No fart jokes then?

But in all seriousness, I liked the lighthearted humor of the original games. It’s what gave the series it’s charm.

I tend to look at this as an evolution of the series, sort of like how God of War (2018) was to its series. Let's be honest, Fable had some great games but it wasn't held in such a high regard like e.g. the Halo series. The same can be said about the older God of War games. However, with a new generation and a reboot, the series now has the chance to go a different direction and become more highly regarded just like with God of War (2018). More ambitious gameplay, stronger narrative and so on. This is literally Microsoft's big chance to make Fable a hit franchise instead of just making a "decent" game. Because the potential is definitely there, they just need the right people for the job and hopefully this person is one of them.

@LtSarge
God of War (2018) is in my top 5 favorite PS4 games but the originals were held in way higher regard than Fable ever was that I don't think this is an apt comparison. God War 1, 2 and 3 had review averages of 94, 93 and 92 respectively. The first two sold over 4 million copies, the third over 5 mil. The 2018 game is the most successful with a 94 review average and 12 mil+ sales but this series was always a big hit for Sony. Even the out-sourced God of War: Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta received high critical praise (91 and 86) did nearly 4.5 mil combined sales. This was considered among the top character-action series for its time, right there with Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden. As much as I like the 2018 game, I do miss the over-the-top style of the older games.

As for the older Fable games, I actually like them quite a bit, the second being my favorite, but with Bioware and Bethesda being at the top of their games around that time, it was difficult for WRPGs from other companies to compete.

I just wanna know Teresa’s endgame. Just give me that. She causes so much pain in order to save the world but what does she intend to do with the spire?

@Gamer83 I was debating whether to use the term "high regard" or "mass appeal" so I apologise for having not expressed myself better but the point I was trying to make is that God of War (2018) was much more popular than the games of the old formula simply because of the change in direction. Just like you said in your post, 2018 sold 12+ million copies, way more than the other games. Times have changed, if Sony had released a God of War game similar to the old formula in 2018, then it probably would've bombed. What was successful 10 years ago doesn't necessarily have to be successful today. I mean, even Sony was considering not releasing a new GoW game after Ascension: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2018/01/sony_didnt_really_want_another_god_of_war_game

Looking at the Fable series, Fable 1 sold 3 mil copies, Fable 2 sold 3.5 mil and Fable 3 sold around 4 mil, low numbers similar to the first three GoW games. Granted, the games were still seen as successful but I honestly don't see another game with this formula doing well nowadays. People have different expectations for AAA games like this today, especially now that they've seen what can be done with the likes of Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima etc. It just wouldn't do, and we're starting to see changes with Microsoft's other franchises such as Perfect Dark as well.

@Jacko11 writing for a game usually isn't done close to the start
Engine/tools/prototyping
Prototyping. Gameplay
As she said they story vision (overview of what the story is is done which sets tone)
Then you get to individual mission creation, asset design (some of this can already be done as side quests and such normally had a seperate team or writing)
Do still could be a mid 2022 or even a Early (March early) 2022

This really depends on size and how the team is handling working from home

Can't wait for Fable to come out

@LtSarge I'm hoping Microsoft's game ISN'T following Sony's "mass appeal". While i was never specifically a fan of the old GoW games and the new one is clearly high quality, everything "mass" appeal tends to just mean "follows Hollywood tropes" .....i don't get the appeal of almost everything that comes out of Hollywood. MS has been a safe haven for western "AA" gaming. Less mass appeal, more game, less Hollywood.

The idea that "what worked 10 years ago didn't necessarily work today" gets me nervous. We've transitioned from games being good games to games having to be a multimedia multi genre "experience" to appeal to the largest possible market all at once. Exactly what's wrong with AAA gaming. If you're trying to appeal to everyone, you're strongly appealing to no one. It's why a lot of Japanese games resonate so strongly with fans. They're rarely AAA and never try to appeal to everyone. They try to be the best of their niche they can be.

If something is good enough to be exceptional in its niche it will find mass appeal automatically. Control being an example of that.

@NEStalgia Do you never see people write stuff like "Xbox has no games"? The subtext here isn't that the brand physically doesn't have any games, but instead that it doesn't have any amazing games worth buying their products for and that is true. In all honesty I think it's regressive thinking to suggest that Microsoft shouldn't have games that appeal to as many people as possible. Do all their franchises need to do that? No. Do they need franchises that appeal to the masses? Yes, and that's where they are lacking. You can't possibly believe that Microsoft is able to compete with Sony with how their franchises are right now. They should at least "evolve" a good amount of them, such as Halo, Fable, Perfect Dark and so on, or at least create some new ones with a modern facelift. They need franchises like these in order to make Xbox as a brand more appealing. Because right now, they don't have many like that.

Considering Microsoft's approach now is to expand to all kinds of platforms with a streaming service, it should be obvious that they need games that appeal to as many people as possible on said platforms.

To be clear, I'm not saying that they should only have games that appeal to everyone, but they sure as hell need more of those right now. That much you can't deny.

Control came off as a rather creatively written game, should be interesting to see what she can do with a more traditional fantasy setting.

@LtSarge Perhaps, though at the same time, competing 1:1 against the primary strength of a competitor is a losing game. Offering something different or catering to a different market differently is a lot more sustainable. In this case ms has been offering a lot more "gamer"focused experience than Sony's "video games for movie watchers" stronghold where half the games are assassin's creed with a cinematographic shine. And i love assassin's creed....

In that sense Nintendo is a better example to learn from. They learned early that trying to directly compete with Sony in their strongest categories is a fool's errand and offering different is ultimately stronger competition. Is much rather Microsoft build it's diversity of catalog and leverage it with gp etc to drive engagement and sales. Leave the mass appeal stuff to Ubisoft and ea. Focus on delivering things other vendors don't. That's stronger competition than trying to make fable follow the production trend of the hour featuring moody characters and shaky cam photography to make it "socially relevant".

@Grot when i think of fable i don't tend to think of humor. It's always been a deceptively dark world with a friendly cartoon exterior camouflaging a lot of deep philosophy inside.

I can't remember Control's plot but I was so underwhelmed by the action it had that I think it's possible I've simply blocked it out of my mind. That said, knowing Fable is in the hands of someone respected is great. It's been far too long since Fable has been a thing. I played the crap out of the Fable Legends early release and was always bummed that it was canceled. It didn't blow my mind or anything but it was new Fable.

@LtSarge

Another Xbox fan whining for Microsoft to follow the Sony model? 🙄 😴

So you want every first party game to be some single player, 3rd person action/adventure game? I don’t. If you do, go buy a PlayStation.

Personally, I like variety in my games. Fable doesn’t have to be some super mature game with 87 cutscenes & play like an interactive movie.

And who cares how many copies of God Of War Sony sold? Do you get any of the $? Nope. And that game only sold to just over 10% of the fanbase on PS4.

In my opinion, I liked Fable’s lighthearted moments & tone. But if Playground wants to do something different, then that’s cool too. I guess we’ll see. They should make the game they want to make, not just “appeal to the masses” in some attempt to copy Sony.

Variety is the spice of life, as they say. And we get all of Microsoft’s first party stuff on Game Pass, which makes it even better. 👍🏻

@Grot

Exactly!

@NEStalgia

I completely agree. Just trying to copy Sony’s model is a fool’s errand. Like you said, Nintendo learned that long ago. I love that Xbox does things in their own way with things like Game Pass.

And not every game needs to be some huge, super expensive, AAA interactive movie. Microsoft has studios for that, but they also have enough studios to offer a variety of different types of genres.

Am I going to like them all? Probably not. But that’s ok. I’ll take variety any day, though.

@LtSarge
Well, to get more on topic than I did with my last comment, I did like Control, especially its story, so I'm interested to see what this lady does with Fable. By the time the game comes out I will no doubt have an Xbox Series X.

She's looking forward to getting started on it... Will it release before 2023?