Playground Games’ new Fable game, which was revealed by Xbox eons ago, has been delayed into 2026. This is pertinent news for PS5 fans because the title was recently rumoured for Sony’s system as part of Microsoft’s multiformat push, and could now launch day one alongside its Xbox counterpart.
As part of a first-party update, boss Craig Duncan said: “We previously announced the date for Fable as 2025, [but] we are actually going to give Fable more time and it’s going to ship in 2026 now.”
The recently appointed executive, who stepped up to Head of Xbox Game Studios in November after previously running Rare, insisted that the RPG reboot will “definitely be worth the wait” and that fans should have “unequivocal confidence in the development team”.
As part of the announcement, Microsoft also debuted some pre-alpha gameplay, which looks absolutely mind-blowing visually but a bit rough around the edges with regards to animations and performance. The delay probably makes sense, then.
Of course, this delay means there’s a greater chance of Fable launching day one on PS5 now. Writing on ResetEra, reliable tipster NateDrake – who accurately leaked the Nintendo Switch 2’s reveal date – said that “talk of Fable going to PS5” started circulating last year, and it was assumed the title would come to Sony’s system in 2026 as it was “planned to hit Xbox in 2025”.
It’s looking increasingly likely there’ll now be no delay on the PS5 version, but as things stand the game has only officially been announced for Xbox Series X|S and PC, so we’ll need to wait for further word from Microsoft to know for certain.
[source youtube.com, via resetera.com]
Comments 50
Can't say I was ever looking forward to this, certainly not enough to buy an Xbox, and that gameplay is painfully unimpressive.
I'm sure it'll be fine, but Xbox has to get out of 'fine' territory someday to get me to care
@Enuo Yeah so far it seems like they've had four and a half games this gen break out the "fine" territory.
Indiana Jones
Pentiment
Forza 5
Hi-fi Rush
Halo Infinites core gameplay.
@Enuo The visuals look incredible but the gameplay snippets look a bit rough. Interested to see more.
I guess we’ll see next time Fable is shown at a showcase whether or not it will come to PlayStation, since they’re now going to show PS5 logos at their showcases, right?
Expected perhaps, but at this point it hasn't even been announced or confirmed for PS5. Maybe we should take it easy with this, should we expect an article everytime a game unannounced for PS5 gets a delay? How about we let them announce the thing first?
Jumping the gun a little bit I think....
how dare a pre alpha build a year away from release look a bit rough
@trev666 No one is criticising it, just pointing out that the delay makes sense because it naturally doesn't look quite ready yet.
I'm sure it'll be fantastic when it's finished.
@LogicStrikesAgain Would make sense, yes.
They probably saw the reception Avowed had and wanted to avoid the same reaction.
It looks alright to me, was probably more likely to be excited about Richard Ayoade being in it about 2 years ago than I am now lol
They have probably delayed the Xbox version to prove how sincere they are about multiplatform and launch alongside the PS5 version!
This game could be up there with God of War 2018 and the Witcher 3 and red dead redemption two,
Or down there with avowed, crack down 3, hellblade 2👀
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
@Areus I thought Avowed is doing well? At least that is what the media seems to be reporting.
The Fable games are very good games, some have been better than others like any game series.
@breakneck It is and as someone who’s actually played it, it’s decent too.
It’s being wrongly compared to previous games that did the genre better without accepting it as its own thing. So far I’m loving it.
@breakneck Feels like a targeted campaign to make it seem worse than it is. All I’ve heard is that it’s good. Not an all-timer but well worth a playthrough. And that was similar to what I heard about The Outer Worlds and I really enjoyed that.
@nessisonett has Richard done some controversial things or something?
@Kienda IIRC he spoke out in favour of Graham Linehan as a "man of great principle" when Linehan is a pretty giant transphobe.
I’m still haunted by some of my poor decisions I made in fable 3, the sound of townspeople and villagers constantly vomiting from drunkenness is all I can hear when anyone mentions fable.
@Fartingale Some of those decisions were VERY unforgiving.
I think it looks pretty impressive, production quality much higher than Avowed, and since Sony don’t make full RPG’s you don’t get many RPGs with high end AAA production quality.
I’m super psyched by these growing numbers - there’s nothing like the Fable series. Funny, truly magical worlds where you really feel lost in a fairy tale. Also, look at that Werewolf! When have we ever had a werewolf look that good? And the world looks beautiful in the footage.
Some folk are just hard to please.
The new Fable is looking good, the Belverine looks absolutely incredible.
I really hope that they release the Fable trilogy onto the PS5 before the new Fable releases to get PS players into Fable if they have never played the series before
@ChrisDeku
It’s being made by the Forza dev if I remember correctly which is probably why it looks so good
@BleedingDreamer
Fable 2 is my favourite in the series, it’s a shame that they cancelled Fable Legends as that game looked great
@LogicStrikesAgain
Apparently so
Temu Witcher..Comes to mind..🤣
From what I've seen of the game so far, it seems to have lost the charm of 1 & 2, and yes the combat does look rough, being delayed is a good call, nobody wants another Cyberpunk on release.
Of course it looks rough the Video is pre- Alpha, the game can still a full 180 and be some space Fable game at this point,
This will definitely come to ps5 day 1, if Microsoft wants money it's an easy choice
The delay makes it even more likely to come day and date to PS5 imo
We know one thing for sure. The creator doesn't like chickens.
@breakneck I keep trying to get into avowed but everything about is off , the controls, graphics are very meh,gameplay is just what we have seen over the last 10 years,its just the epitome of an average game, looking at the comments on pure xbox though, you'd think it was up there with the second coming of christ, and why is my character running about with his fists up in the air all the time , and why is the character animation so crap in 2025.
@Enuo The earlier looks at Avowed's combat looked stiff too, but by launch it was genuinely great. Fingers crossed that it's also just a sign of work not quite being finished yet.
It looks like they just need to increase the dodge range, add a roll maybe, and increase the characters stumble/reactions when hit. That solhould all be doable? The actual attacks and magic looked good.
@Lysterao I dunno , the combat feels like it's missing frames of animation
One of the few Xbox properties that I am curious about. ‘Sword and Magic fantasy RPGs’ are among my favorite types of games, especially when they are third-person. However there is plenty of competition for my game time, particularly when most of these games are quite lengthy. I can’t get to them all so I’m not sure if this will do something to push it near the top when there’s games like Witcher 3, DA Veilguard, Dragon’s Dogma 2, both KCD games (although they are more realistic sim and less fantasy, from what I understand) that I still need to get to. I guess maybe this series fills a niche where the storytelling and character development is more open and customizable but the gameplay is more action based…? It looks good but just wondering if it can marry the deep storytelling and character development with top-notch action gameplay. It seems like games usually can only do one of those two aspects really well.
What I don't understand is that this game engine has to be heavily modified because it would not support the design of this game because of its prior uses and the devs have only ever made racing games 🙄 so of course there was going to be problems it would be foolish to think otherwise
I’m expecting it to be another Microsoft Studios 7/8 rated game that I may pick up on sale. Way too early to tell, but there’s a well founded history dating back to the 360 to base that thought pattern on. Hopefully I’m wrong and MS ups the quality.
I downloaded Avowed to check it out. 6 hours in now. I think that it's pretty decent.
Looks like a PS3 game sheesh...
@Areus The majority of the reception I have seen has been positive. Not sure what you are looking at outside of Metro UK and Gamespot and a few others.
@breakneck Avowed is doing well, unless you ask one of the anti-woke brigade, in which case it's the worst game ever made and an example of why the games industry is dead.
@breakneck no he’s not.
I just take it as given that all Xbox games are coming to PlayStation.
@breakneck
i agree, but at least its diverse, there's at least one game for each
Not sure about it yet, too early for me. I would love a Fable 1-3 collection on PS5 though.
Wouldn't be surprised if it landed day one on PS5 as that game must be haemorrhaging dev funds as it's been in development for like ever.
@Markatron84
Skillup's review was interesting. He loved the combat but thought the story/main quest was a bit rubbish. The whole RPG aspect sounds a bit weak TBH, which is weird, because Obsidian are typically very strong on this front
Please M$, give me original Fable 1. Thank you.
Looks like the combat is a bit slower paced like The Witcher 3, good as long as its smooth and responsive and has depth to it, I really want to see how choices impact the world since that was huge part of Fable is being who you want to be. Also we need to be able to be landlords again and catch STD's, have children, sacrifice your spouse etc. This is what made Fable so unique so I hope its here too.
Its a good thing Microsoft is putting their games on Playstation, their quality has improved significantly with Indiana Jones having an 87 OpenCritic and Avowed an 82 despite the Twitter hate echo chamber
I expect Outer Worlds 2, Doom to both be great and South of Midnight looks solid. I'm fine with the multiplat strategy as long as the games continue to be quality
Don’t know what this game is, but it’s not Fable. I’d rather get the original trilogy on PS5.
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