Fable is delayed until 2026, but Xbox Game Studios head says: "It's definitely worth the wait"

The Fable reboot, initially scheduled to release some time this year, has been delayed to 2026.

"We are actually going to give Fable more time," Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan says in a new episode of the Official Xbox Podcast. "While I know that's not maybe the news people want to hear, what I want to assure people of is that it's definitely worth the wait."

Playground, the Forza Horizon developer, has already made "quite frankly, the most beautifully realized version of Albion you've ever seen," the Xbox director continues. "I have unequivocal confidence in the Playground team. If you think about their history and legacy for Forza Horizon – the last two games critically acclaimed [...], award-winning, beautiful, played great."

Xbox first revealed Fable in 2020, but it's been reticent about sharing more details about the action RPG – the first game to join the irreverent fantasy series in nearly two decades – since then. Fable didn't even get a full trailer until 2023, though Duncan shared fresh pre-alpha footage during his Official Xbox Podcast appearance, calming the sting of Fable's delay a little bit.

The new clips show off Fable's lush, flower-spotted environments and dynamic sword combat, and Duncan adds that the game's quests, boss battles, and magic all "felt amazing" during his hands-on time.

"Genuinely beautiful," he says, "It's very real. Everything you're seeing here is very playable. [...] Take my word for it."

"There are no bigger fans of Fable as a franchise [than] the Playground team that are making it," Duncan continues. "It's a really fun balance between, what are the game tenets that are true to Fable? And what's some modern day reimagining of what is Playground Games' version of Fable?"

Fable's reboot remains shrouded in mystery – but that's the most exciting thing about it.