While there are still some questions on when exactly the next Fable game will finally release, there's no longer any doubt that it's in the works. As Fable 4's leaked potential release date creeps ever closer, the development team is adding talent that includes former Rare lead artist Toby Hynes.
The Fable game series has been in a number of different hands over the years, starting with Big Blue Box which worked on the first game in the franchise. Xbox Game Studios has always been the publisher, but the job of developing the next few games was handed off to Lionhead Studios, who then worked on the Fable games from 2005 to 2016 before being replaced by Flaming Fowl Studios in 2017. In 2020, development of the next game was handed over to Playground Games, which is apparently still staffing up and adding to the development team.
Unlike some hires in the video game industry that are hinted at through job listings or surreptitious changes to someone's LinkedIn profile, Hynes made the announcement that he was going to work on Fable 4 through his Twitter account. Hynes announced he'll be taking on the role of "character lead" for the project at Playground Games.
Hynes brings quite a bit of experience with him, having worked for several years at Rare. While with that company, he was a character lead on both Sea of Thieves and the still in-development Everwild. Before he went to work at Rare he was on the staff of SIE London Studio where he worked on the PSVR game Blood & Truth.
It's hard to know what the addition of Toby Hynes to the development team means as far as the supposed release date for Fable 4. At the very least, it would seem that one or more characters in the game are still needing a bit of polish. Of course, that in and of itself doesn't mean anything definitive as far as when players might expect to see the game make its long awaited debut.
Fable 4 is one of those games that was rumored to be in development long before anyone officially confirmed it was on the way. As of now, there is almost nothing known about the plot of the game or what it will even look like. Some believe there's a chance the game could make an appearance in some form soon, even if the final product might be a year or so away from being ready to launch.
Fable 4 is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.