Playgrounds Games is reportedly running into issues with the upcoming Fable reboot, with a former developer claiming the studio has struggled, leading to slow development. The team’s claim to fame has been the Forza Horizon racing franchise, and it took over development of Fable from Lionhead Studios following its closure by Microsoft.
Though it was rumored for some time, the reboot of the beloved Fable series was officially announced during the Xbox 2020 Showcase. This came as an exciting piece of news for fans of this franchise, as it has not had a mainline entry since Fable 3 back in 2010. It’s been a quiet two years since that reveal, however, and many of those same excited fans have been wondering when more information would become available, as details on the game’s world and story – and even its position in the series – remain unclear. On the other side of the coin, Playground Games’ latest release, Forza Horizon 5, is still being supported.
In a recent interview with Vandal and former Playground Games developer Juan Fernandez (via Wccftech), Fernandez noted the studio has historically been very singular in its approach to developing Forza games. According to Fernandez, this has led to them being somewhat unprepared when tackling the new Fable game, due to a lack of experience with RPGs. Fernandez went on to attribute Fable‘s slow development to this, as the company has had to switch gears with this new genre. The developer told the publication (translated):
“[Playground are] very smart and they know what they’re doing. They wanted to branch out with something different and they thought that what they do well is open world racing games, [but] they lacked people with the knowledge of how gameplay is done. In an open world, how you control a character and the actions are very different from what you have in a racing game. At the technology level, you have to develop animation, scripting, a quest system. Moving in a car at 300 kmh has very different requirements than walking through the countryside.”
Of course, this is only the opinion of one former Fable developer, and as noted by Wccftech, the words are translated, so misinterpretation is possible. That being said, it’s certainly possible that this is the case, as the development of a racing game is far different to that of an action-fantasy RPG. Very little of the new Fable game has been shown, so it’s hard to know exactly what state it’s in, but the longer Microsoft and Playground Games go without revealing any details, the more some fans will assume the worst.
This news may also lead some gamers to question why Playground Games was given this project in the first place. While this studio’s talent and ability to produce high-quality games has been proven, it may seem like an odd choice to continue the Fable series. Hopefully, the Forza Horizon developer will have something to show soon.
