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Fable Delayed To 2026, New Gameplay Shown Off

The new update comes from the official Xbox podcast.

23 Comments

Microsoft and Playground Games have announced that the new Fable game has been delayed to 2026. This update from the head of Xbox Game Studios, Craig Duncan, on the official Xbox podcast.

"We previously announced the date for Fable as 2025; we are actually going to give Fable more time and it's going to ship in 2026 now," Duncan explained. "While I know that's not maybe the news people want to hear, what I want to assure people of is that it's definitely worth the wait."

Duncan went on to show some pre-alpha footage of Fable, which mostly consisted of combat. It looks like Fable will have a variety of different combat options, including wielding swords, hammers, and magic spells. There also seems to be seamless transition between cinematic cutscenes and combat. According to a previous report, Fable's combat will feel similar to that of The Witcher 3's. Duncan also said that he's played Fable's city elements, quests, and boss battles, noting that they all felt great.

As part of the video version of the podcast, some brief glimpses of Fable gameplay are shown. Those clips are compiled in the video below, showing off some of the various environments, horseback riding, combat, and more. This is all labeled as being pre-alpha footage, however.

Despite Fable being delayed to 2026, Xbox Games Studios has plenty of releases this year. Avowed just launched earlier this month, and South of Midnight launches in April. Doom: The Dark Ages will release in May. The Outer Worlds 2 is expected to come this year, along with reportedly Gears of War: E-Day.

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Lord_Sesshy

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Lord_Sesshy  Online

Disappointing but better then releasing an unfinished like most games these days and fixing it later.

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GamerBum

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Wow if that’s pre alpha footage can’t wait to see what the final game looks like coz the graphics already look better than most games today.

And with Playground games you know they’ll take the time to make sure the gameplay is top notch.

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Loveblanket

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I hope we can create our own characters. The game looks great, but I'll never understand why Microsoft makes all it's games characters look like they got absolutely hammered with the ugly stick.

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thenephariouson

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@loveblanket: All Fable games have allowed you to choose between Male & Female characters and cant see why this would'nt be any different to be honest.

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StickEmUp

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Man… That combat looks bad. I know it’s pre alpha footage, but saying it’s like The Witcher 3, and it indeed looking like that, is bad. The Witcher 3’s combat was ass. This isn’t looking super promising.

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Dominicwow

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Edited By Dominicwow

It’s impossible for me to be hyped for anything coming from Xbox/microsoft anymore. The fable gameplay looks interesting but I’ve been burnt too many times, I don’t care anymore

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m4a5

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Lets hope that after seeing how Avowed is fairing (not well) that they are learning the right lessons?

I don't have much hope for it, but this at least I can see as a good move.

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ItsNotA2Mer

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Edited By ItsNotA2Mer

@m4a5: "Lets hope that after seeing how Avowed is fairing (not well)"

Which sucks, because it's actually a pretty fun game. 🤷

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m4a5

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Edited By m4a5

@itsnota2mer: I was excited for what the 4 year old trailer shows. However, with what they put out, the best I've heard is that it's "fine".

And then the more I see the more it just looks shallow. So many little things missing, and too many game-breaking bugs for release (the save corruption one should've been dealt with so much sooner).
At the least, it could've used more time to add polish, but I feel like they rebooted it too many times to get that luxury.

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ItsNotA2Mer

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@m4a5: It's got issues, but the fun factor is there.

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mogan

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mogan  Moderator

@itsnota2mer: Agreed. Avowed started slow, and I almost put it down after the first few hours, but I'm glad I stuck with it, because it's gotten better and more interesting as the game's gone on.

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mogan

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@m4a5: Unless Microsoft decides to stop releasing their first party stuff on Game Pass, I doubt we're going to see anything from them do big sales numbers.

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LTKCentaur

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It looks solid, but I really have to wonder how/why it's taking so long to get it made. Is it gonna be some massive, gargantuan title with a ginormous amount of stuff to do, or are they just struggling to nail down the essentials of the game as they want to make it? I'm more than ready for another Fable, and that trailer with Richard Ayoade pretty much nailed the silly tone I expect from the series, but man... it's taking so long to come out. That doesn't always = bad news, but it sure has me kinda worried.

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Spartan_418

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Ugh. So no Forza Horizon 6 until next gen, then. Hopefully it and Fable are worth the wait though

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gameboy8877

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@Spartan_418: those are different teams— it could be out this year for all we know. They staffed up the Fable team separately, like Respawn when they spun up the Jedi games

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LucasRezende9

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Will there be character creation or fixed protagonist?

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gameboy8877

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@lucasrezende9: character creation

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Slannmage

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I would cancel it now as it looked like arse.

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Loveblanket

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Edited By Loveblanket

@Slannmage: Character aside, if you think that looks bad, you need to get your eyes fixed. Nothing in that video looked anything less than next gen.

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raggedyman

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For the players!!!

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ItsNotA2Mer

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Expected.

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