New Fable developer Playground "got a treasure trove of documents" from original creator Lionhead "that had been in storage," and one sums up the whole series in 5 words

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New Fable developer Playground "got a treasure trove of documents" from original creator Lionhead "that had been in storage," and one sums up the whole series in 5 words News By Austin Wood published 22 January 2026

Fable is very different today, but Playground studied the old ways

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New Fable developer Playground Games has been careful not to slavishly emulate the work of series creator Lionhead Games, but the new shepherds of the IP did obviously want to examine and learn from the games that came before them. As part of this history lesson, the studio unearthed design files that were evidently stored away before or around the time Xbox shut down Lionhead a decade after acquiring the studio and mismanaging it into dust – a misstep that Xbox leadership has publicly owned up to in the past. Surely they wouldn't do that again.

In an Xbox Wire post, Fable general manager and game director Ralph Fulton tackles the question of "the essence" of a Fable game.

"We came up with a bunch of things – the first of which I would say we actually inherited from Lionhead," he says. "When we started working on this project, we got a treasure trove of documents from Lionhead that had been in storage.

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"Something that I thought was just brilliantly succinct was one of the documents, which said: ‘Fable is Fairytale, not Fantasy’ – which is just super neat."

Digging up these documents might technically count as grave robbing given Lionhead's fate, but there is something poignant about a new generation of developers rediscovering the principles laid out by the folks who made the IP they've now inherited, and using them as a touchstone for their own ambitions. And Lionhead nailed it with those five words – that's Fable, right there.

We spoke to Fulton to learn more about how Fable's open-world fantasy lets you meddle in the lives of over 1,000 unique characters. He stressed that, "It would be inauthentic for us to try and just make Fable 4. We felt we needed to reboot the franchise and put our own 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.

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Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. CATEGORIES PS5 Xbox Series X PC Gaming Platforms PlayStation Xbox Austin WoodSocial Links NavigationSenior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

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