After what feels like an absolute eternity since it was first announced, Xbox and Playground Games have finally pulled back the curtain on the upcoming Fable reboot - and wow, this could be an Xbox game for the ages if all comes together in Autumn 2026.
The Forza Horizon specialists are set to deliver a sprawling open world RPG with plenty of choice and consequence, engaging The Witcher/Hogwarts Legacy-like combat and all of the whimsical charm you'd expect from a Fable game. It all looks to be here and well, and it all looks rather stunning.
"From a specially created new team at Playground Games (Forza Horizon), this huge, ambitious, hilarious game aims to bring what you love about Fable, and provide a fresh perspective on this legendary franchise.
During Developer_Direct, we learned how the story begins, saw combat in action, had character customization confirmed, discovered how Fable’s classic morality system is being reintroduced in a whole new way, found out about the game’s Living Population of unique NPCs, and so, so much more."
During the showcase — which you can take a look at up above — Playground's Ralph Fulton talked a lot about how the team is both honoring Fable's legacy while opening up the experience to a whole new audience, and honestly, it looks and sounds like they've absolutely nailed the brief. Here are a few example shots from this first Fable gameplay deep dive:
The head of Playground Games has also talked extensively with Xbox Wire about this upcoming Fable title, touching on the open world, morality, how the story begins, how combat works and much more. We're going to chuck some small excerpts from each of these topics down below, to give you a bit more context on how this big Xbox RPG is coming together.
Open World: "Right from the start of the project, we’ve always felt it was important that the player can go wherever they want, from the moment you leave your village and venture out into Albion for the first time. We’ll talk more about levelling and progression at a future date, but you should know that being able to go to any one of the settlements in the world and have fun things to do there was imperative to us. And so we shaped our progression around that requirement."
Morality: "Our version of morality isn’t a sliding scale – we’ve chosen to anchor this around the actions you do, and specifically the things you do in Albion that are witnessed by at least one other person. So, if the things you do are seen by one or more people, you’ll start to earn a reputation for that thing. Obviously, we always use the chicken kicking example, because kicking chickens is classic Fable."
Story: "In classic Fable fashion you begin the game as a child. We absolutely love that. And that’s when – and it’s not a spoiler to say – your heroic powers emerge. You realize you’re a hero, and everything changes for you from that point. And from there we do a time jump, and we rejoin you in Briar Hill, your starter village, in adulthood – and for the rest of the game you will play as a mature adult in their prime."
Combat: "We’re taking the original game’s mix of melee, ranged, and magic – ‘Strength, Skill, and Will’ – and turning it into what we call style-weaving combat. We wanted to create a combat system which was fluid enough to allow you to really frictionlessly, seamlessly swap from melee to ranged to magic, without even a frame’s delay on it. You should be able to strike with a sword and then hurl a fireball in a smooth movement. So that’s what we’ve set out to achieve with combat."
We'll link to that full interview down below, alongside a brief teaser trailer if you'd like to simply get a quick glimpse at Fable in action. Xbox and Playground have this one planned for Autumn 2026, and it's coming to Series X|S, PC and PS5 on day one.