Xbox Publishing Head Would Love Another Fable

Last March, Microsoft announced that they were closing the British development studio Lionhead. Lionhead, headed by the legendary (for better or worse) Peter Molyneux, was responsible for the Fable and Black & White franchises, which were arguably integral to the open-world genre as a whole.

The closing of Lionhead also shut down development of Fable Legends, a sort of create-your-own-adventure set in the Fable universe. We’ve seen Fable Fortune, a card game in the same vein as Gwent, published by Microsoft and developed by an outside studio. But where does the fate of the mainline Fable series lie? We’re not entirely sure, but we do know that Xbox boss Shannon Loftis would love to see it return, and being the head of first-party publishing, she’s got quite the pull on such a move.

In an interview with GameSpot at PAX Australia, Loftis actually revealed that Fable is more than just a game she was involved with. It was actually the reason she moved to England years ago when producing Fable II.

“Fable is very near and dear to my heart,” Loftis said. “Actually one of the primary reasons [I moved to England] was to work with the team on Fable II. Fable Fortune is now out, the card game. We love the IP. I can’t talk right now about whether we’re doing anything with it or not, but if I ever get the chance to go back to Albion … ”

So, Loftis, you’re a big fan of a series we at GameZone are particularly fond of as well, and you basically have the greenlight button sitting in your office as we sit here typing this? That’s a very interesting piece of information… Maybe this will counter her previous single-player game comments from last week.

Unfortunately, she said stated that she can’t talk about it, but that’s far from a solid “no” in our book. Fable has had some mixed press in its time, first due to Molineux’s overexcitement and overselling of features, but also due to Microsoft’s mid-2000 handling of purchased studios falling into development hell. After all the controversy is said and done, Fable was a beloved series, and one we would love to see return. Last year, Molineux said he would love to make a Fable 4 despite leaving Lionhead and having disagreements with Microsoft. However, he’s currently working on a new game with his own studio 22Cans called Legacy, which he said will be “very different.”