Fable team at Playground Games was already being built in 2017 after Lionhead closed
IGN says Playground Games started building the Fable team in 2017, a year after Lionhead closed in 2016.
- Ralph Fulton says, according to Eurogamer, that Fable is seen within Xbox as something “vital to the DNA of the platform,” which helped protect the project.
- Eurogamer says the Fable reboot was announced in 2020 and is currently expected in 2027.
What happened
IGN reports that the Fable reboot at Playground Games has gone through a long development cycle, with the studio starting to build the team in 2017. That was about a year after Microsoft shut down Lionhead Studios in 2016 following the cancellation of Fable Legends.
That left the franchise with Playground Games, the studio previously best known for Forza Horizon. According to the reporting, this was not just the public announcement phase for Fable, but an earlier stage of team building and preparation that began years before the game was revealed.
Eurogamer adds that Fable is viewed as a core franchise within Xbox. Ralph Fulton says the game is important to the identity of the platform, and that status helped protect the project during a period when other Xbox studios and teams faced layoffs and closures.
The sources do not give a single clear start date for full production. They do, however, make it clear that Fable’s reboot was already underway in the years after Lionhead’s closure, well before the official 2020 reveal.
Timeline
2016: Microsoft closes Lionhead Studios after cancelling Fable Legends.
2017: Playground Games reportedly begins building the Fable team.
2020: The Fable reboot is officially announced.
2024: IGN publishes reporting on the long development cycle and the project’s protection within Xbox.
2027: Eurogamer cites this as the current expected release window for Fable.
Background
Fable is an RPG franchise now being developed by Playground Games, the UK studio behind Forza Horizon. After Lionhead closed in 2016, the series did not return to its original developer, but instead moved to another Xbox studio.
The reporting also places Fable alongside broader changes at Xbox. IGN mentions several studios and teams that faced restructuring, layoffs, or closures during the same period, while Fable appears to have remained relatively protected because of the franchise’s status within the platform.
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Sources
- IGN: article on Fable’s long development cycle and the project’s protection within Xbox
- Eurogamer: reporting on Fable as a core part of Xbox and the expected 2027 release