Xbox Game Studios boss has played a "bunch" of the Fable reboot, and his "brain pops" thinking about its 1,000 NPCS: "Fable is going to be an incredible RPG"

Fable 4 screenshot showing the hero holding a sword and sitting next to a man clad in armor called Humphrey — (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Craig Duncan – head of Xbox Game Studios – is very excited about Fable, and he reckons it's going to be a brilliant RPG.

Fable finally had its coming-out party after what feels like forever last week, with the Xbox Developer Direct, and it's looking quite impressive. But of course, Fable as a franchise has a history of looking incredible pre-release and disappointing upon release – mostly thanks to the old Molyneux razzle dazzle – so naturally there's some hesitation. However, in an exclusive interview with GamesRadar+, Xbox Game Studios' lead says he reckons it's going to be "incredible."

Duncan explains how Fable landed in the hands of Forza Horizon developer Playground Games. "When I think about Playground and their history with the Forza Horizon franchise, and their desire to take on Fable as a franchise, I think it's really about this relentless pursuit of excellence," he says, adding, "We all know what that means in Forza Horizon, we've all seen that franchise get bigger and bigger every year, but what does that mean for Fable?"

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Duncan reports that he's played a "bunch of the game," adding, "I've messed around with the combat and the Living Population, and it's just mind blowing." He adds, "what I think Playground has done is take some of these ideas and modernized them – my brain pops every time I think about the Living Population, how it works, and what it adds to the overall game."

The Xbox Game Studios head is an especially big fan of the Living Population features in the game, saying, "it's an incredible invention, and Fable is going to be an incredible RPG. It will be amazing to see what players do with it, and it'll be massively shareable." Obviously, given his role, you wouldn't exactly say a game of yours wasn't incredible, but Duncan's enthusiasm seems to be shared by a lot of Fable fans, so after Starfield, this could be Xbox's next chance at a proper RPG hit this generation.

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