Update:
Playground Games has just confirmed reducing the scope of Fable but alongside an explanation that changing the scope of a game during development is a normal and “healthy” practice.
Taking to Twitter earlier today, senior producer Amie Loake cleared up the matter by stating that every single-player has “gone through scoping during development”. In addition, changing the scope is done to have a “clear vision” of the game in order to limit delays and crunch.
It's intention is to make sure the team are focused under one clear vision and can get it made in the time they have without killing themselves. Games that haven't been scoped correctly often have delays and crunch, both we should be aiming to avoid whenever possible. 2/2
— Amie (@Mrs_Spuddles) June 1, 2022
Original:
The new and upcoming Fable reboot has apparently been “scaled down” after having trouble trying to achieve its originally-set ambitious goals.
During the latest XNC Podcast episode earlier today, co-host Gaz Lehri stated that he has heard from a trustworthy source about developer Playground Games reducing the scope of development for the fan-dubbed Fable 4.
Fable is being rebooted on the ForzaTech engine which has so far powered the open worlds of the Forza games. Trying to build an open world for Fable though was always going to be a completely different matter.
Playground Games is said to have found it difficult to build a functional open world for Fable on ForzaTech that supports its gameplay mechanics. In addition, a lack of actual open-world mechanics outside of its Forza games made development too cumbersome for the developer.
“Fable had to be scaled down because the team had trouble with the engine,” said Lehri. “They tried to build the game on ForzaTech [but] the gameplay mechanics were alluding them. They couldn’t fit them in the engine.
“[Fable] may be further away than you think.”
The news about Fable having trouble meeting its development goals is not new. The same was said by a former combat designer at Playground Games a couple of months back who was brought in solely because the developer had little experience in designing a combat system for an open world on such a massive scale.
Fable was never given a release window but it was assumed as much that the reboot will not be seeing the light of day anytime soon. Following its recent engine troubles, that assumed release window has been pushed back even further.
Fable 4 or whatever it gets called in the end was announced in July 2020 for Xbox Series X|S and PC.
