Fable head says "we can't try to make a Lionhead game," and the RPG reboot isn't fantasy either: "We all know what fantasy is – it's The Witcher, it's Skyrim, it's Lord of the Rings"

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3. Fable

Fable head says "we can't try to make a Lionhead game," and the RPG reboot isn't fantasy either: "We all know what fantasy is – it's The Witcher, it's Skyrim, it's Lord of the Rings" News By Jordan Gerblick published 22 January 2026

"Fairytale exists right at the opposite end of that spectrum"

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Ralph Fulton, Playground Games general manager and game director on the new Fable, is drawing a distinct line between what his reboot of the classic RPG series is and isn't.

For one, it's not a Lionhead game. The OG Fable developer shut down in 2016, and Playground isn't trying to simply dupe the recipe for that studio's special sauce.

In an interview with Xbox Wire, Fulton revealed that Playground received a "treasure trove of documents from Lionhead that had been in storage" to serve as a navigating star as the new developers worked on rebooting the franchise. However, Fulton also made clear, "we can't try to make a Lionhead game." The British game developer is known these days as the Forza Horizon studio, but obviously that's about to change.

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"One of the things I said to the team was, 'Look, we're not Lionhead – we can't try to make a Lionhead game,'" said Fulton. "This has to be 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."

Another key distinction Fulton learned from the aforementioned documents is that Lionhead didn't consider Fable a fantasy game, despite magical creatures and abilities having always been a core component of the series' world and systems.

"I guess our interpretation of what that means is that fairytale and fantasy probably exist on opposite ends of a spectrum," Fulton said. "I think we all know what fantasy is – it's The Witcher, it's Skyrim, it's Lord of the Rings, it's Game of Thrones. And I think tonally it's quite grand, it's sweeping, it's geopolitical, it's serious. You know, you can almost picture the color palette of fantasy."

One of the standouts from the Fable segment of today's Xbox Developer Direct was the focus on NPCs, of which there are more than 1000, almost all of which you can interact with in a myriad of different ways, from marrying them to divorcing them and even employing them. Fulton recently sat down with GamesRadar+ and explained how Fable's ambitiously designed NPCs are at the core of the game's open world fantasy – erm, fairytale.

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"We felt we needed to reboot the franchise and put our own stamp on it. This had to be Playground's Fable," Fulton told us.

Sorry, the Fable reboot doesn't feature a dog companion, Playground lead confirms: "I was hoping that nobody would ask that question"

TOPICS Xbox Showcase CATEGORIES Xbox Series X PS5 PC Gaming Platforms Xbox PlayStation Jordan GerblickSocial Links Navigation

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

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Logout Read more Fable isn't a sequel, Playground Games lead says, because "we needed to reboot the franchise" and "put our stamp on it"    New Fable developer Playground "got a treasure trove of documents" from original creator Lionhead "in storage"    How Fable's open world fantasy lets you meddle in the lives of over 1000 living NPCs    Sorry, the Fable reboot doesn't feature a dog companion, Playground lead confirms    Fable 4 is officially just Fable, and after a 16-year wait it finally launches this fall across Xbox, PC, and PS5    Fable 4: Everything we know so far about the new Fable game    Latest in RPGs Minecraft creative lead plays Hytale and decides "I'd rather just play Minecraft," Hytale dev says he's "probably right"    New Fable developer Playground "got a treasure trove of documents" from original creator Lionhead "in storage"    Fable will let me romance nearly all of its 1000 NPCs "with a very few exceptions," Playground Games lead says    Sorry, the Fable reboot doesn't feature a dog companion, Playground lead confirms    Fable isn't a sequel, Playground Games lead says, because "we needed to reboot the franchise" and "put our stamp on it"    Fable 4 is officially just Fable, and after a 16-year wait it finally launches this fall across Xbox, PC, and PS5    Latest in News Forza Horizon 6 is going full anime with Initial D-inspired Touge Battle mode and a full-sized Gundam    Forza Horizon 6 adds Assassin's Creed Shadows-style base where you can build anything, if you fund it with tofu delivery    Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 dev had to "change the rules of the game" because it couldn't compete with giga budget RPGs    Fable head says "we can't try to make a Lionhead game" and that the RPG reboot isn't fantasy – it's fairytale    Forza Horizon 6 Premium Edition is $120, even more expensive than the previous game, and it doesn't include all DLC    Alan Wake 2 studio defends Epic CEO as Larian publishing lead questions "millions in lost revenue" from no Steam version    GAME REVIEWSMOVIE REVIEWSTV REVIEWS

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