There's a lot of reasons to be excited about the Fable reboot, as many fans initially had little reason to believe that the core games in the franchise would make a resurgence. Even so, Playground Games is at the helm of reviving an IP that stood tall among action RPGs and choice-driven games for many years. Playground Games isn't known for developing RPGs, but it has plenty of general experience from its work on the Forza Horizon series, the latest of which was very well received. Perhaps even more notably, this reboot is one of Playground Games' first projects since Microsoft acquired it for Xbox Game Studios. With Microsoft's resources behind it, Playground Games is sitting pretty.

Even with all these advantages, however, fans aren't sure what to expect from FableNot everyone is confident that Playground Games' work on Forza Horizon is the right kind of knowledge to pick up an RPG. Shaky faith and cautious optimism might seem like they hurt hype for the game, but they might actually leave Fable better off in the long run. The less pressure there is on Playground Games from the Fable community, the more likely it is that development will proceed carefully and avoid being run over by its own hype train.

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Treading Lightly

Fable 3 Screenshot Of Millfields' Demon Door

There's a lot of details that Fable players want to know about the game before they really get excited. The trailer from last summer may have been a significant announcement, but it didn't reveal any gameplay and seemed generally irrelevant to the game's plot. Fans need the game to be strong in these areas. Fable 3 got some criticism, as some fans and critics thought the gameplay was too simple and the plot was lacking. Fable's identity is largely built around the player's behavior toward the world around them, but few players would feel compelled to interact with a world filled with weak characters.

That's why a lot of fans are playing their cards close to the chest on the Fable front. Since Playground Games doesn't have much to say yet, fans haven't dedicated themselves to the project either. Fable appears to be early in development still, considering the job listings that appeared after the game's reveal. That means fans will probably be left in the dark for a while longer. One hopes that the game won't be rushed toward an early release date if fans seem willing to wait and see what the developers have in store. After all, Fable 3 isn't the only entry in the franchise some fans feel bitten by, as there are some valid criticisms of the second game as well. Overall, how the past two games landed set up for how some fans may be feeling now, yet again, this is not a bad thing.

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A Cautionary Tale

Fable 2 Fable 4

Playground Games can learn a lot from Cyberpunk 2077 on this front. CD Projekt Red was determined to drum up lots of excitement for its dystopian IP, so the game got some flashy advertising. CD Projekt Red also promised some optimistic release dates that had to get pushed back multiple times, tantalizing fans. Ultimately, many fans changed their tune when the game came out, as those who wanted the game out as soon as possible found it was riddled with flaws and demanded fixes. Cyberpunk 2077's hype turned against it when the game failed to live up to expectations for many fans.

Xbox Game Studios and Playground Games don't want to clean up the kind of mess that CD Projekt Red is dealing with. If Fable isn't aggressively trying to drum up hype for itself, it'll be a good way to prevent controversy. Instead of working the crowd, Playground Games is just telling fans that there's a new Fable game in the works that they can look forward to playing someday. An air of calm will do Fable good. In order to live up to the previous games and perhaps even exceed them, Fable should be developed with plenty of care, rather than reckless haste. Fans' patient enthusiasm, and indeed perhaps even worries, may just make the game better off in the long run.

Fable is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.

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