Summary
Peter Molyneux, the infamously ambitious head of the now-defunct Lionhead Studios, recently spoke about the history of the originalFabletrilogy, giving some insight into his regrets, goals, and favorite aspects of the series.Molyneux isn’t working on the nextFablegame, but he has historically been considered the main driving force behind the franchise.
Fablehas been a sleeping giant for quite some time, with the last non-spin-off game,Fable 3, launching back in 2010. The series, while beloved, was often criticized for not living up to the monumental expectations set by the developers—especially Molyneux. The issues with the franchise came to a head withFable 3, whose ambition dwarfed its development time, leading to a game that many argue didn’t reach its full potential. In the eyes of these critics, the third game was held back by a lack of content, particularly in its third act, along with hit-or-miss features like the Sanctuary.
Ahead of thehotly anticipatedFablereboot, Molyneux sat down withTheGamerto discuss the series' past. The former Lionhead developer touched on the grand designs the team had forFable 3, how they wanted it to comment on the relentless forward crawl of the industrial world, and their dreams of putting the player in the shoes of a leader, with an in-depth, extensive portion of the game meant to be dedicated to the player’s role as king or queen. On that last point, Molyneux lamented that the developers didn’t have enough time to flesh it out in the ways they wanted, citing Microsoft’s release date deadline incentives as a key reason why development time was so truncated. Molyneux also took a bit of the blame for this, stating that it “may have been [his] fault” as well, as he didn’t push back on these deadlines or ask for more time.
ThoughFable 3retains the series' identityin many ways, it can sometimes feel like a game without much direction, and much of this can be attributed to its rushed development. Features like the unfortunately barebones kingship section are good examples of inclusions that sound great on paper, but perhaps didn’t get the attention and time that they needed to be truly great.
With Molyneux reflecting on his storied history as a AAA game developer, it will be interesting to see what he does next. Moreover, it’s worththinking aboutFable 3’s shortcomingsas Playground Games and Xbox prepare to launch the next chapter in theFablefranchise.
Fable
Xbox Game Studio’s Fable franchise is a series of action role-playing games consisting of three main series games and a handful of spin-offs.The Fable games are known for their charming characters, gorgeous fantasy worlds, and alignment mechanic that sees players become good or evil depending on the morality of their choices.
