Following a recent rumor that Playground Games had restarted development on Fable due to the game being unplayable, industry insiders debunk the latest theory. After a number of high profile game delays in 2022, many Xbox fans are hoping that Microsoft's first party offerings in 2023 are a bit more frequent. With Bethesda projects like Starfield and Redfall launching this year, as well as other console exclusives like STALKER 2, Replaced, and ARK 2, it's clear that 2023 should be a better one at the very least. Regardless, Xbox fans are also expected to get more news on some of Microsoft's longer term projects like Avowed, Perfect Dark, and even Hellblade 2: Senua's Saga. One project that has constantly flown under the radar with little to no major updates since its reveal back in 2020 is Playground Game's take on Fable. Outside of small development nuggets from those working on the game, much of the speculation surrounding Fable has been its development struggles, with a new rumor indicating that the game has been completely rebooted after being deemed unplayable.The original Tweet, which has since been deleted, came from a user known as Idle Sloth who took the information from 4chan. Initially stating that the game was deemed unplayable by most of the team, Fable had been scrapped and restarted in the Unreal Engine rather than the in-house Forzatech. However, it appears that report was largely fabricated as industry insiders like Jez Corden and Christopher Dring took to social media to debunk that claim.
Replying to the now deleted Tweet, Corden pretty definitively debunks the rumor by stating that it has been hard confirmed the details of that reported Tweet are total lies about the switch to Unreal. Dring also followed that up by stating that the rumor was simply not true. While the game has apparently been in development for around 5 years at this point, it doesn't seem as though Playground is abandoning Forzatech anytime soon.
While the news that Fable isn't restarting development should please fans, it doesn't change that face that almost nothing concrete is known about the game over 2 years after its announcement. Many are hoping that'll change this year, and it very well could happen if reports are true that Microsoft has brought in Eidos Montreal to help Playground in developing Fable. Similar to Crystal Dynamics and The Initiative with Perfect Dark, reports indicate that Eidos Montreal has a number of projects in the work including assisting with the development of Fable.
Fable is in development.