Fable is back, and the Forza Horizon studio is its new daddy

Forget Fable 4, the next installment in the iconic fantasy series will be a reboot titled simply Fable. With the original development studio, Lionhead shuttered in 2016, the responsibility for bringing back one of Xbox's most beloved titles falls on the shoulders of Playground Games, the people behind Forza Horizon. 

"To put the Fable franchise - and give it a completely fresh start - in the hands of one of the greatest game developers in the world, and also right there in England with Playground Games, is sort of a dream come true," said Aaron Greenberg, general manager of Xbox Games Marketing at Microsoft.

"We're letting them get a fresh start with the franchise and really you can see it's still got the classic British humor that's really true to the franchise, it's obviously going to be a role-playing game, we've got the best folks in the industry working on it. Today was just the reveal of the game, and we're excited to officially say Fable's coming, and we'll share more when we're ready." 

The game will be released on Xbox Series X, PC, and is coming to Xbox Game Pass.

We got our first look during the Xbox Games Showcase, and as well as fairies, magical swords and hungry toads, Playground Games' skills in building stunning worlds - even ones without supercars tearing through them - were on full display. 

The last shot at rebooting Fable was the ill-fated Fable Legends, which attempted to take the single-player RPG and turn it into a four-player co-operative game that relied heavily on microtransactions. The original plan also included the chance to use Microsoft's SmartGlass feature to allow you to plan attacks, and a roster of rotating heroes. Basically, it was Fable in name and art style only, and the Fable faithful reacted accordingly. The game made it into open beta, before being canceled in March 2016.

New Fable has no release date yet, but for a real Fable adventure, we'll happily wait just a bit longer. 

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