Not much has been heard about Fable 4 since the official announcement trailer was released in June of 2020. However, a recent tweet has given some insight that Fable 4 has been in development for at least four years.
The news comes from Tom Gaulton, a Lead Engineer at Playground Games. Gaulton revealed via an employee appreciation award that he and the team at Playground Games have been working on Fable 4 for four years.
Fable 4 has been greatly anticipated since the cancelation of Fable Legends in March of 2016 and the subsequent closure of Lionhead Studios. In 2018 rumors began to surface that Playground Games would be developing the next entry in the series. A large number of job postings for an "open-world role-playing game" lent some credence to the rumors.
Since the official announcement trailer, it has been no secret that Playground Games is working on Fable 4. However, nothing else has come up since then. With Fable 4 having been in development for so long, many are speculating that another announcement or game reveal will be released at an upcoming conference. Aside from its recent development of Fable 4, Playground Games is most notable for its work on the Forza Horizon franchise. The studio was founded in 2010 in Leamington Spa, England. Its most recent title, Forza Horizon 5, is set to fully release on November 9, following it being made available through early access on November 5. With that out the door shortly, it could be assumed that resources will be freed up for further development of Fable 4.
The Fable franchise has been in a bit of a quagmire since Fable 3 was released in 2010. Aside from a few spinoff titles, there hasn't been an entry in the main series for over a decade. Trouble began when Lionhead Studios released Fable: The Journey for Xbox 360 in 2012. The game, like many other Microsoft partner titles released at the time, required the use of a Kinect to play. This received much ire from critics and fans alike. It was in the same year that Lead Designer Peter Molyneux departed Lionhead Studios, which many saw as a clear indicator that the franchise was in trouble. The last Fable entry from the studio was the announced Fable Legends, which was canceled by Microsoft in 2016 before shutting down Lionhead Studios entirely.
Fable was an immensely popular franchise during the Xbox 360 era of games and helped usher in "player choice" in games. Though many boastful claims were made during presentations about the impact of said choice in games, it could never be argued how popular and enjoyable the games were. Many were saddened to see the franchise seemingly come to an end and the development studio behind it close as well. But, Playground Games has done phenomenal work with the Forza franchise and while Fable isn't a racing title, they have earned some trust from the community.
Fable is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.