We haven’t seen the smoke of Fable since the summer of 2020, when it was announced. The reporting since then has mostly consisted of who joins the team. However, we have heard rumors that development is slow as the Forza Horizon studio lacks RPG experience . New report talks about another brake block: Microsoft is said to insist that their games use in-house engines.

In 2021, we got wind that the engine that will drive Fable is the Forza engine Forzatech.

Microsoft insider Jez Corden has heard that there is “internal politics” going on around the Xbox games in general. Microsoft would rather see its own engines than, for example, the Unreal Engine, which is somewhat of a standard engine in the industry. Here he specifically mentions Fable , but also Halo Infinite (which is rumored to change engines).

Corden doesn’t go deeper into Fable than that, so we should probably take this with a grain of salt. It is clear, however, that we haven’t seen the smoke of the new Fable in almost two and a half years, and then we only got to see a pre-rendered film. It possibly means that there is gravel in the machinery.

That, or fourth Fable was announced way too early.

Xbox Game Studios’ Matt Booty recently said on the Skill Up podcast that the game overcame both obstacles and his skepticism. He wishes he could tell more, but the studio has his full confidence.

"Playground makes racing games, but if we deconstruct that a little bit, I think the thing that Playground does is high-craft, high-quality, high attention to detail. They had a particular passion for the IP and I think they also demonstrated that they understand what the heart and soul of Fable is about and how they can bring it forward for today’s sensibilities.

How to make a modern take on Fable.