Fable will be very British, and you'll play it before Elder Scrolls 6

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer went on the 500th episode of IGN's Unlocked podcast, and in the process left a trail of tasty breadcrumbs about some of the behemoth's most-anticipated titles. One of those is the reboot of the Fable series being developed by Playground Games, best-known for the Forza Horizon series, which he briefly addressed while talking about Obsidian's Avowed.

Since its announcement, Avowed has come to be seen as Obsidian's Skyrim-killer, but Spencer thinks "the games are very different, so maybe I struggle a little bit to say that's our version of this: just knowing what Fergus [Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian] and the team are going off to do, but when I think about our line-up, and I think about that more core fantasy RPG setting I think Avowed's going to be an awesome entrant there."

"Fable’s never been that," Spencer continues. "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." Then he says we'll be playing it before another biggie: "Elder Scrolls 6 is further out, and when that comes out I think it's going to be incredible."

Spencer finished by returning to the Skyrim comparison. "I think Avowed just from a core fantasy based RPG, there's going to be some distinct differences with what Elder Scrolls has done traditionally, this one obviously takes place in the Pillars [of Eternity] world and stuff, but yeah..." Yeah Phil? Go on (spoiler: he did not).

Rich Stanton

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."