Last year, it was leaked that a new Fable game was in active development at a UK studio. Not long after that, another leak revealed that the UK studio in question was apparently Playground Games, the developer behind Xbox's hit Forza Horizon series. It was later confirmed that Playground Games was in fact developing a large-scale RPG of some kind, though we still haven't had official confirmation that it's Fable. Regardless, Playground Games looks to be putting in significant effort with its RPG project, having just added former developers from Massive Entertainment, Rockstar Games, and even the defunct Lionhead Studios.
This news comes courtesy of Nick Duncombe, the Resource Manager at Playground Games, who announced the new hires on LinkedIn. The new recruits for Playground Games include Michael Leone, who worked on Red Dead Redemption 2 at Rockstar Games; Neil Davies, who also worked on Red Dead Redemption 2 at Rockstar Games where he was the senior lighting artist; and Tom Maddocks, who worked on the audio at The Division 2 studio Massive Entertainment, but cut his teeth at Lionhead Studios.
Lionhead Studios, for the uninitiated, was the studio that originally created the Fable franchise. Prior to Microsoft closing down Lionhead in 2016, the studio had produced three main series Fable games, as well as two spinoffs. The studio was also working on an asymmetric multiplayer game called Fable Legends before that it was canceled, which is the Fable title Maddocks worked on.
While Fable Legends was experimental in nature and never properly launched, the game was still firmly rooted in Fable lore and style. This means that Maddocks should already have a decent grasp on how a Fable game should sound, which should make him an invaluable member of the team.
Of course, that's assuming Playground Games is making the new Fable. While it's been leaked multiple times and heavily rumored, the new Fable hasn't been officially announced. Many were expecting to see the new Fable at E3 2019, but that didn't come to pass, and with the game likely aiming for Project Scarlett, it's a long shot that we'll see it anytime soon.
If Playground Games isn't making a new Fable, then it is likely making a brand new IP. All we know about the game is that it's an RPG, though, so we'll have to wait to find out more.
Fable is rumored to be in development for unspecified platforms.
Source: LinkedIn (via TrueAchievements)