Fable: Everything we know about the series' new beginning

Fable reboot — (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

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After another lengthy absence, Fable is confirmed as returning for more folk hero fantasy near the end of 2026. Yes, that's still a bit of a wait, albeit a shorter one if you're among those still hanging on since Fable 3 launched over a decade ago.

Fable 4—officially just "Fable" as Playground Games reboots the series—shows more signs of life with a dedicated showcase at Xbox's developer_direct, and one very cheeky, very British trailer right after another. So far, what we've seen of Fable captures the same tone and sense of humor the series has maintained since day one, tapping into UK talent like Matt King and Richard Ayoade for a bit of artistic snark and sarcasm.

Is there a Fable release date?

There isn't a specific date yet, but Fable will launch Fall 2026. It was originally planned for a 2025 release, but in March of 2025 it was delayed to the following year. Then Xbox's developer_direct in January 2026 gave us a little more information, slating it for "Autumn" 2026. Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan says will be "definitely worth the wait."

Previously, according to Phil Spencer, we'll play the new Fable before The Elder Scrolls 6 is out, but that's not much to work with, as ES6 was announced in 2018 with one small, no-gameplay trailer, and there's been a whole lot of nothing on that since. So it's hard to say how those two things will stack up now that Fable has been delayed to 2026.

Fable trailers

Fable - Xbox Games Showcase 2024 - YouTube

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During the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase, Playground Games debuted another look at Fable with actor Matt King narrating the life and adventures of a girl "who made all the wrong choices." It's a bit of a wink and nod to perhaps both the setup for the next game and the series' core appeal in prioritizing player choice. Life and death, good or evil, it's all up to the protagonist.

Fable - Xbox Games Showcase - YouTube

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Back in the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase, we've got our first real idea of what Fable looks like in the current day. And who better to handle the narration than Richard Ayoade? Playground Games is nailing the vibe: As aggrieved farmer Ayoade describes the world's heroes with his deadpan delivery, we see just how exhausting it would be to live in a world with sword-swinging magical yahoos traipsing through it. Just leave the man to his pumpkins. Please.

When a wheelbarrow-toting gent watches the trailer's heroine punt a chicken into the sunset and wearily mutters "Yeah, well done," I felt it more deeply than maybe any other line of games dialogue I've ever heard. Excellent stuff.

Here's the Fable 4 reveal trailer

Fable - Official Announce Trailer - YouTube

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Fable debuted with a reveal trailer at the Xbox Games showcase in July 2020. It's light on detail—more than likely this is just a fun cinematic that doesn't indicate much about the final game. It does have that familiar vibe of Tolkien-like fantasy being trod on by the messy reality of medieval life though. Fable remains silly.

Fable gameplay

Developer_Direct 2026 - Fable - YouTube

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Oh-ho, lookie here—eleven minutes of proper Fable gameplay! It’s lovely to see that it’s actually real after all this time, but the gameplay and interview footage in January's developer direct revealed a lot more than that.

The Fable reboot is an open world action RPG that you can explore seamlessly, with the freedom to go where you want from early in the game—right after you grow up and leave your starting village. There's no "ticking time bomb" either, as you're free to pursue whatever you want in the world without messing up the main story. Although Playground Games are keeping quiet on how their leveling system works exactly, the devs have said that you don't have to worry about high-level enemies blocking you if you choose to go exploring first, instead of unraveling the main story.

As for combat, you play as the first Hero that Albion has seen in a generation, and Heroes, like in previous Fable games, can harness and use magic. You use this magic (Will), plus melee (Strength) and ranged (Skill) weapons to fight enemies, with each enemy having their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Classic weapons like the hammer, bow, and sword also make a grand return, and you can perform light and heavy combo attacks with your melee weapon. Plus, you can do fancy finisher moves! Can't wait to take out those poor Hobbes with a hammer finisher.

Other returning enemies include Balverines, Hollow Folk, and Trolls, but there will of course be new enemies in the Fable reboot. One such new foe is the Cockatrice, a fire-breathing chicken, which is a very fitting additional for the Fable series and its love of kicking chickens.

Another classic Fable-ism is its morality system, and it returns for the reboot with a slightly different take. All of your witnessed actions still have moral consequences, but this time, they're not part of a "black and white" points system. Instead, each person judges your actions based on their own morality. Kick one too many chickens and get the 'Chicken Chaser' reputation? Well, some people who don't like chickens might actually praise you for it, whereas ardent chicken fans will of course think less of you for it.

If you want to get rid of an unwanted reputation title, there are "things you can go and do about that to redress the balance." Or, you could just pay the Town Crier to start shouting about a new reputation to overwrite one of the old ones.

Here's some other bits we learned about Fable in the developer direct:

There's a character creator, and you can customize clothing, hair, skin tone, tattoos, and scars. There's also a fully body chicken outfit available. You know what to do.
Romance is confirmed, as is getting married (and divorced) and starting a family (or two, or 100)
You can buy houses, get a job to make money, buy businesses, and become a landlord with the ability to evict tenants if you so choose. This can result in people becoming homeless, and rightfully blaming you for it.
There are 1000 unique NPCs. Each has a name, a role, a daily routine, and their own personality, and you can talk to every single one of them in fully voiced conversations. You can also hire them to work in one of your businesses.
Everything you do affects what these NPCs think of you, because everything you do builds your reputation.
Some choices change the landscape of Albion for the rest of your playthrough, such as the choice to kill or spare Dave (played by Richard Ayoade), an egotistical gardener who accidentally turns himself into a giant. If you kill Dave, his corpse will lay on farmland outside of town for the rest of the game, which affects house prices.
Locations include "Idyllic rolling hills, magical forests, bustling villages, sleepy hamlets, oversized vegetable patches, and stunning vistas."
In the north of Albion you'll also find "Mountains, craggy coastlines, spooky marshes, and the bleak, windswept city of Bloodstone
In Bloodstone there are two rival gangs vying for power, and a "secret and sinister" Cult of Shadows.
That mockumentary interview style wasn't just for Fable's trailer, as we'll be seeing more of it throughout the rest of the game.

Fable story details

In proper Fable fashion, you start the game as a child in the village of Briar Hill. Here, your heroic powers first emerge in a moment of extreme danger and you find out that you're Albion's first hero in a generation. Not long after this, disaster strikes and the people of your village (including your dear grandma) are all turned to stone by a "mysterious stranger."

From there, time jumps ahead to your adulthood, and you play as a mature adult in their prime for the rest of the game. So, no ageing system beyond the main story at play this time, it seems.

Tracking down this mysterious stranger and de-stonifying your village is all we know about the main story at this point, but the first trailer also hinted at some fun shenanigans in the Heroes' Guild. In the trailer, the guildmaster, Humphry (played by Matt King), rambles on about Albion's former young and "terrifying" hero fumbling her role despite his apparent mentorship. If you watch the footage with subtitles, another character dubbed "the Hero" steps in at the end to warn Humphry, "She's back." Cue the dramatic Rival Hero sequence.

So, who is Humphry talking about in his version of events? Is it that shadowy figure at the end? Is she his former mentee and the historical screwup? Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

What we do know is that Bowerstone city is back along with all its famous landmarks Fairfax Castle, the old Clock Tower, and the Hero's Guild, of course.

Other Fable details

Fable &mdash; Richard Ayoade stars in the latest Fable trailer, as an exhausted farmer who, in a just world, would be considered more heroic than the gallivanting adventurer class. Also, he's a giant. — (Image credit: Playground Games)

Is Fable a reboot or a sequel?

It seems to be a little of both, with the official line (via an Xbox Wire interview) being:

"It's a new beginning… We’ve chosen not to be beholden to the timeline of the original games – the events, the characters – really just to allow ourselves the freedom to build our own Albion and tell our own, new story within it."

Forza Horizon's Playground Games is developing Fable

Forza Horizon developer Playground Games, who'd been previously rumored as the Fable 4 studio, is definitely the team in charge. According to a 2018 Eurogamer report, Playground had been chipping away at Fable 4 for a few years with a team of about 200 on an open-world action RPG. Playground beefed up a new Warwickshire studio just for it, so this definitely isn't a small-time Fable spinoff.

"Fable’s clearly [...] always been a little more light-hearted and a little more British, I think I could say, and I think Playground will keep it there," Phil Spencer said in 2021. That doesn't tell us a whole lot, but it seems to reinforce that Fable's sense of humor may be one big thing that isn't changing.

Fable is using the Forza game engine

This doesn't come as a big surprise: Microsoft put out a job posting in early 2021 for a software engineer at Turn10 Studios who will focus on the Forza Tech engine.

"ForzaTech is the engine, tools, and pipelines that drive both the Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon series of games," the job description says. "In addition to adding new features like raytracing to support the next console generation, we are also enriching the toolset to support an open world action RPG—Fable."

Fable &mdash; the trailer's hero gazes off into the sunset, in which direction they'd punted a chicken just seconds before. — (Image credit: Playground Games)

Fable picked up a new narrative lead

Anna Megill, already the lead writer on the Fable reboot, was promoted in July to Fable’s narrative lead, as Megill confirmed on Twitter. Megill has an extensive history in games narrative, having worked on franchises like Guild Wars and Dishonored, and recently as narrative lead on Control.

While “lead writer” and “narrative lead” might sound interchangeable, narrative design is a wide-reaching discipline that shapes the player’s interaction with a game’s story. As Megill said, “Narrative encompasses more than writing.”

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Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She joined the PCG staff in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.

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Jessica OrrContributor