Is the Fable series coming back?

Fyra Frost - 03-Jul-2020, 4:55 pm

The Fable series is undoubtedly a very popular license that many players have enjoyed on Xbox and PC. However, Fable has had its ups and downs. After the first game, which was released in 2004, had a very warm reception, the series reached its peak with the second part, Fable II. The third installment in the series, Fable III, didn´t have the same luck, and although it wasn't a bad game it rather disappointed the players. As for Fable: The Journey, which was released on Xbox 360 and playable in Kinect, it was a real flop.

So logically, when Fable Legends was announced, the fans of the series were delighted. Unfortunately, everyone knows what happened next. Microsoft, which bought Lionhead Studios in 2006, announced in March 2016 that the game would be canceled, and the studio closed its doors soon after.

Since then, the fans of Fable, far from losing hope, have been trying to decipher every clue that could indicate the return of the series. Many rumors have revolved around a Fable 4 for about three years, especially after Playground Games announced that they were working on an RPG, but it seems that new clues about this matter concretize a little more the existence of a new game of the license. Some time ago a Twitter Fable account, which seems to have been updated recently, was spotted, and that created some expectation. However, Aaron Greenberg (director of marketing at Xbox Games) quickly reacted by declaring this:

I know everyone is hungry for news, but sorry to get your hopes up. These accounts have been inactive for years, it’s standard practice to secure social handles for our IP.
— Aaron Greenberg ????????‍♂️❎ (@aarongreenberg) June 28, 2020

It seems to be a fairly definitive answer but that's before a brand new rumor is taken into account. It turns out that Microsoft has recently renewed the trademark filing for Fable. Of course, that does not mean anything strictly speaking, except that this request is accompanied by a "form of intention of use". Concretely, this makes it possible to commercially exploit a brand that is not. What makes all this interesting is that this type of form is only valid for six months, and renewable only five times if no proof of use of the mark is provided during this period. Even if this is in no way a confirmation that Fable 4 is indeed in the pipeline, it's is enough to leave us wondering.

That definitely is a lot of guesswork for no certainty, but the mystery about this possible new Fable game may be solved at the Xbox Series X event that will take place later this month, who knows?