Summary

• The new Fable game in 2025 will have cutting-edge graphics that are up to par with other AAA games.
• Playground Games will bring a more realistic art style to the franchise.
• The closure of Lionhead Studios led to a change in direction for Fable with a new studio.

After lying dormant for over a decade, Fable will finally have a new title in its main series, with the latest entry aiming for a 2025 release. Back in its heyday, the Fable series was a mainstay of the Xbox's extensive games library, known for its dry humor and charm as well as its morality system. The games always had a stylized cartoon aesthetic and were never massively praised for their graphical fidelity, but the latest title looks like an Unreal Engine 5 tech demo.

The difference in graphical fidelity can, of course, be attributed to the progression of hardware. Fable 3 was launched in the middle of the Xbox 360's tenure, while this new Fable will be released in the middle of the console generation, two generations ahead. Fable 3 is fourteen years old, and a graphical improvement is expected for a modern title, but the newest game is pushing the boundaries with its graphics as well as changing the artstyle in favor of a more realistic one.

The Reason Why The New Fable Looks So Different

Why Forza Horizon Is Important

When Xbox was looking at its catalog of games to bring back, Fable would have been a no-brainer, but the original studio behind the series (Lionhead) has been shut down for some time. This meant that a new studio had to take the reins if the franchise was to make a comeback, and with Microsoft's acquisition of so many, it had a wealth of options at its disposal. It may have come across as odd that Playground Games was chosen as the developer behind the Forza Horizon series, a far cry from fantasy RPGs.

Although Playground Games had very little experience with making RPGs, there was a reason that they were chosen for the task. In an interview with the Guardian, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, mentioned that he had a look "at what Playground has done with the Horizon series – that attention to detail, the ability to represent these naturalistic landscapes." It was Playground Games' work with open worlds and their ion for the IP that made them stand out as the right studio for Fable.

Playground Games was founded in 2010 and until it was given Fable, it had only worked on Forza games.

Playground's attention to detail means that the new Fable's world will be more rich than ever if its gorgeous new trailer is anything to go by, but it also means that it will be more realistic. The charming cartoon graphics of Lionhead are lost in favor of almost photo-real characters. This isn't necessarily a bad thing since the game does look amazing from a visual standpoint, but Playground's experience with realism with environments and cars meant that the art direction was likely to have leaned in this direction.

Why Xbox Needed To Search For A New Studio

Why Lionhead Was Shut Down

Playground is known for realistic graphics and high attention to detail, but Lionhead never made Fable a realistic-looking game. It was stylized and unique. More importantly for Xbox, it was well-loved by fans, making Lionhead's closure confounding. There's no single reason the studio was closed, but it was working on Fable Legends before it was shut down, which was fraught with development issues and delays.

Microsoft acquired Lionhead Studios in April 2006, but had a working relationship with them beforehand while working on Fable 1.

Not a lot went right for Fable Legends. There was controversy about it being free-to-play since many thought of other titles stuffed to the gills with microtransactions, and the disappointing sales of the Xbox One might not have produced the numbers needed for the game to thrive. It didn't help that the game before this was Fable: The Journey, a Kinect-only title. Players wanted Fable 4, but Xbox had Lionhead make struggling spin-off titles that eventually may have had a hand in its closure.

In the documentary Power On: The Story of Xbox, it was itted that there was regret over how Lionhead Studios was handled. Its closure would always make the next Fable a project rife with difficulty, and it could mean that the original aesthetic is lost to the franchise forever. There was worry that Fable would die like the studio behind it, but with Playground Games at the helm, there is new life in the game, as well as an entirely new art style behind it, which makes sense for a reboot.

Can Playground Games Deliver?

Will The Different Look Help Fable?

Fable is a departure from what Playground Games usually does. The realistic cars of Forza are quite different to the wondrous creatures of Fable and an entirely different team means that the vision behind the game could be quite different, too. This is seen most in the art direction and the photo-realism of the characters and environments. It is certainly impressive, but questions remain whether it can capture the essence of the original games.

One of the benefits of choosing Playground Games is that it is a British studio, just like Lionhead was. Fable is known for incorporating British culture in places, with the accents of characters, the dry wit, and humor, as well as the world being called Albion, an old alternate name for Great Britain. This is most clearly seen in Fable 3's Industrial Revolution setting, and the hope is that Playground Games can bring that distinct, British charm that is intrinsic to the franchise.

A New Studio For Fable

A New Look To Boot

Playground Games has an immense task on its hands. Making a reboot to a game franchise as beloved and well-regarded as Fable is not going to be easy, but it seems like the studio is going in its own direction. Realism is not traditionally associated with the Fable franchise, but if the newest game can keep the charm of the series alive and well, then the change in art direction could work to show how far Xbox has come.

It is clear that the change in studio and aesthetic will mean that the game will not be the Fable players from their childhood. It will be bigger (and hopefully better) than ever, leveraging the experience from the Forza series as well as the technology of the Xbox Series X|S. With some luck, Playground Games could deliver a grand, fantasy adventure filled with charm and wit while scoring a big win for Xbox.

Sources: The Guardian, Power On: The Story of Xbox