Fable gameplay footage debuted at today's Xbox Developer Direct, and despite a long 16-year wait between instalments the presentation felt very on brand. That's maybe a little surprising, given Lionhead Studios closed in 2016. The new game is in the hands of Forza Horizon studio Playground Games, which has very little in common with the old Lionhead except for—perhaps crucially—its Britishness.
In an interview published by Xbox, Fable game director Ralph Fulton discussed how the studio dealt with taking on a storied series from a once-venerated studio. "One of the things I said to the team was, ‘Look, we’re not Lionhead—we can’t try to make a Lionhead game.’ This has to be a Playground game because I’m a really firm believer that the personality and the character of a team is visible in the work they do and the games they make."
