While Microsoft has yet to formally announce Fable 4, there have been so many leaks and reports pointing directly to a new entry in the beloved RPG franchise that it’s very much a known unknown at this point.
The most recent leak in a long, long (seriously guys, it’s a long) line of leaks is perhaps the most compelling evidence for the existence of Fable 4 yet, as the game has now shown up on Mixer, Microsoft’s very own Twitch-style streaming service.
Typing “Fable” into the search bar of Mixer throws up the results you’d expect, including the first three Fable games and a few spinoffs, each with their own thumbnail image. See above.
Interestingly, an entry for a Fable 4 is also tucked away in the results, complete with a mysterious lack of thumbnail image. As PCGamesN pointed out, Mixer pulls from an actual database of official games, so it’s not like some merry prankster has found a way to set this up.
The way I see it, Microsoft has done such a bad job of keeping Fable 4 a secret that it figured it might as well just start acting like everybody already knows about it, what with the fact that we all do.
Fable 4 has been rumoured to have been in development for a while now – even before original developer Lionhead closed its doors back in 2016. In fact, one of the alleged reasons Microsoft opted to close Lionhead rather than sell it to one of the (multiple) interested parties was because the publisher wanted to retain the Fable IP.
While that in itself suggested there were plans for a revival, the existence of Fable 4 looked more certain than ever early last year, when a Eurogamer report revealed that Forza developer Playground Games were working on an untitled open-world action RPG that various sources seem to agree is indeed a new Fable.
Towards the end of 2018, it was revealed that PlayGround Games were indeed hiring over 150 members of staff, including Character Artists and a Creative Director, to work on a AAA RPG.
With Microsoft gearing up to announce a new console, and promising one of its biggest E3 shows ever, this could be the company’s chance to steal the spotlight and announce a stellar launch lineup for the next generation of Xbox.
Personally, very much I hope that lineup of games includes Fable 4. I certainly wouldn’t bet against seeing it during Microsoft’s E3 show on June 9, at any rate.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.