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Fable is still at early stage of development, job listing indicates
- Thread starter Craig of War
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Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
As I mentioned, they had thought of an idea back in 2010. And HZD was not the only idea they were prototyping. There was another steampunk game like Order 1886 that they were conceptualizing alongside Horizon Zero Dawn. If you want to count that as a period when they had started full production, then you can't use that as a comparison to measure Fable's development time because Fable is an existing IP and does not have to go through that period.
Guerrilla was a single team studio back then. Mathis De Jonge (the director on Horizon Zero Dawn) was working on Killzone 3 back then, which released in 2011. How could he have started working on HZD if he was already working on Killzone 3? Full production on HZD started when Killzone Shadowfall was near completion.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
They did. Mathis (Director HZD) was working on Killzone 3 as a director until 2011.
Varteras
Member
Hermen Hulst says they worked on it more than 6 years. So at the very least, it was that long. So not 7 years. My bad. "More than 6 years". Guerrilla had hundreds of developers. At the start of the gen they were at about 200 devs. So they had enough people to be working on two projects at different stages of development. They've spoken before about the challenges they had switching genres. I think you're assuming they did very little with it until Killzone Shadow Fall was done.
Fable is being rebooted. We have no idea what it is Playground intends to do with the franchise. What they keep or throw away. It is also being handled by a completely different team than entries in the past. We can't quantify what that looks like for them to say it requires less of them.
Silent Viper
Banned
There's no proper evidence. OP just talking out of his ass. People should avoid making such claims without hard clear evidence
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
I think that's unfair on the OP. The development studio is thinking of this project that's "at an early stage" as of now, as evident in the job description they just put out.
CamHostage
Member
It's been a while since we've had a console platform announcement (and maybe we'll never see one handled this way again,) but remember, it used to be common practice to announce pie-in-the-sky plans when a new console is coming out.
A new console thrives on that heat, even if it's fabricated heat. You don't have the strength of names yet, you have a lot of jockeying for position as new studios or ambitious studios in between projects start bringing their next-gen technologies online and pitch brand new titles rather than continuing their hit brands, you really don't have a lot of finished work at announcement time because even the box that plays the games is still in flux, and all eyes are on you to lay out the next year, the next two years, the future of that console. So console manufacturers go big and make promises they haven't even written the checks for, because riding that bluster into battle sometimes is the best way to face the daunting challenge of actually getting so many of these productions kicked off.
...Back in the day, however, they didn't have the same level of social scrutiny (yes, there was "media scrutiny", and that exists too, but angry online mobs form around everything that pissed them off even a little bit these days, and promising a lot of games for a console that would go on to only have a couple of those games in the first 2 years of the platform ballooned beyond being a little bit.) They also didn't have the long timelines that game developers have now. Sony for example showed off Killzone 2 on PS3 in 2005 (in a similar frenzy of "Holy shit, look how amazing our box is going to be!!!!") and that game didn't ship until 2009. Almost four years passed from the bullshit reveal to the finished product. Hellblade 2 is a little over half that time now, but it's been getting "Where the fuck is Hellblade?!" every show it hasn't been a part of since 2019 (which is funny to me since, if you've played Hellblade 1, you might think it's weird that people are treating it as a AAA flagship product as opposed to what it probably is, a personal and ultra-high-end indie made to please specific audiences but not everybody,) and its progress reports have not been welcomed as anybody's idea of "progress".
For sure, Microsoft bluffed in its 2020 Xbox Showcase. If they hadn't shown a bunch of target renders and fancy CGI/logos as "games", their show would have been the Halo catastrophe, a third look at STALKER, and a bunch of 3rd Party titles. Xbox Series X would have looked like an empty boat launching to stormy seas. They instead put on a show, saying, "We're going to have Avowed and Hellblade and Forza Motorsport and Everwild and State of Decay 3, so get excited!", and it was all a magic trick to distract from the true situation of not much done yet and COVID making things worse. They're paying for it now that they didn't have extra aces to play afterwards (aside from Forza Horizon 5) to keep the sleight-of-hand going.
Back a few generations ago, you could pull these tricks, and kids wouldn't get too mad because they've been too busy playing the games that they actually got while waiting for the games they were first promised; now, the announcement-to-state-of-production is the same (maybe even better... maybe Avowed or Forza or even Fable had demos or slices that gave MS the confident to promise the titles, who knows?), but the production timeline is so much longer and the rabble is so roused that you pay dearly for announcing too early.
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StreetsofBeige
Member
I'll guess 2025.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
Yay, more good news about MS.
Belthazar
Member
Wolverine is insomniac tho, we never know with them... It might release next year for all we know.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
The full story of Horizon was recapped in the NoClip documentary. Yes, it's true from conception to release it was 7 years. But full production on it only started after they shipped KZSF in November 2013. So the entire studio only worked on it for 3 years and 4 months.
In 2010 they asked for ideas from the entire studio and after shipping KZ3 in feb 2011, they split off a small team and began work on Horizon while the much bigger team worked on KZSF for the PS4 launch. After around 6 months, they cancelled Horizon to work on another game, a vampire steampunk style shooter. They worked on that for another 6 months to a year until the team realized that they wanted to work on Horizon instead. They basically lost a year during the shuffle.
Fable will likely end up taking 6-7 years seeing as how HFW took 5 years to make and it was a straight sequel. No idea what MS was doing greenlighting Forza Horizon 5. Shouldve had the entire studio work on Fable immediately after shipping FH4 in october 2018. the game wouldve been in full production for 4 years by now with only 2 more to go. But it looks like it might be much farther off than we think.
P.S Technically TLOU took 3.5 years to make after Neil and Bruce split off after shipping Uncharted 2 in October 2009. But they didnt get access to the full team until November 2011. I think they only had around 30 people working on the game for the first couple of years and then the rest of the team finished it in the next 1.5 years.
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Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
This. Thank you for putting this better than me.
It's common for studios to split a small "creative" team to conceptualize and work on an idea and not actually producing the game. In 2010, Horizon wasn't even the final idea. They asked every employee to share ideas on what they should do next (Ghost of Tsushima also came from one such idea), and they shortlisted two ideas (Horizon and that Steampunk game) and started conceptualizing.
Horizon Zero Dawn went into full production much, much later.
Fable does not need that conceptualization stage. When the team was established in 2018, they knew that they were going to make a new Fable. They knew what Fable was, how it works, what the lore is, how the combat is supposed to be, what the world looks like, etc. The comparison between Fable and Horizon Zero Dawn's production times, therefore, does not make sense to me.
StealthGoblin
Banned
The main difference being that they announced the game in June 2015 and released it in Feb 2017. About 1.5 years from announce (with a gameplay demo) to release.
If Fable really still is in early development (as I believe as the writers are still talking about the Hero's journey) then it's bloody ridiculous.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
I am not an xbox fan and im pretty depressed about this. I was hoping to get next gen only games from SOMEONE by 2022 but no one, not third party nor sony or microsoft seems to be ready for next gen 2 years after they launched these fucking consoles.So 2025/2026 then? Fucking hell
Feels like this for Xbox fans at the moment;
I think this is bad for everyone. Even if you are a PS fan, you can invest in a PC and enjoy some of these games. Currently Sony has no next gen games scheduled between today and spiderman in holiday 2023 which lets face it is gonna get delayed to 2024. I wouldve expected EVERYONE to be disappointed if not straight up depressed by THE biggest publisher on the planet dropping the ball like this.
I dont think people realize just how big MS is now. They were already the biggest publisher after acquiring the 8 Zeinmax studios, but after buying activision's 20 studio they are a giant.
I am hoping against hope that this isnt true. Same is true for Sony. I am hoping TLOU remake is next gen. I am hoping Sony has a next gen IP from either GG or SSM ready for release before Spiderman. I am hoping MS gets fable, hellblade and perfect dark out by 2023. I am hoping Sony has an E3 2015 caliber show which also took place 1.5 years after launch just like this year. Next gen visuals, next gen gameplay, next gen game design. At this point, I will take anything but i doubt any of these companies are ready.
It seems both of them spent all of their money buying up studios and publishers and forgot to upgrade their already resource starved studios. We are already 2 years behind, and looking at another 1-2 years before we even get a true next gen only game. That should put test every fanbase's faith in their chosen company.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
To be fair to Playground Games, this might be a reboot. They might be starting from scratch here. Do we know if they even have the engine Lionhead used? Are they being led by any former lionhead employees? To me, this feels like a brand new game developed from the ground up, a reboot similar to GOW which Cory shipped in 4 years with next gen features like more dense environments, wildlife, a.i, and maybe even destruction.
The problem is that we just dont know what they are trying to do here. This is why i hate CG trailers. They show nothing. MS then went silent on the game so we dont even have details on what they are trying to do here. Is it a reboot, a remake, a sequel? How far along is it?
killatopak
Member
Kinda surprised about this. I thought they were farther along since I thought this was already developed for a while.
I'm not that impatient about Fable though. I've been hit with multiple delays and cancellations on the franchise that it doesn't hurt anymore. The silver lining is that it's made by Playground so I definitely think this will get releases definitely at some point.
I'm not that impatient about Fable though. I've been hit with multiple delays and cancellations on the franchise that it doesn't hurt anymore. The silver lining is that it's made by Playground so I definitely think this will get releases definitely at some point.
Bernd Lauert
Banned
No, just very, very Concerned™ about Microsoft leadership or something
sol_bad
Member
It seems like Microsoft like to announce things when a studio has an idea, not when that idea has been turned into an actual developing game with at least 2-3 years of production.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
We should be seeing gameplay footage of Avatar in the next month or two.
Riky
$MSFT
I don't think anyone was expecting this Perfect Dark or Everwild until at least 2024, which is fine as 2023 looks absolutely loaded now.
The only real issue is this year as with the delays to Stalker 2, Starfield and Redfall what would have been a good year could be nothing. We'll see soon enough.
The only real issue is this year as with the delays to Stalker 2, Starfield and Redfall what would have been a good year could be nothing. We'll see soon enough.
NikuNashi
Member
E3 2022?
Varteras
Member
The cancellation of Horizon is not something I was aware of at all. Thanks for bringing more light to the situation. I never saw those documentaries. If I ever have some spare time I'll give them a watch.
My comparison between them is about two studios who had never done anything like what they're attempting after spending many years doing one genre. Both of them working on RPGs. As far as what Fable is or was, we don't know what Playground plans on doing with it. It's a reboot. So what are they doing? How much of the original are they bringing with them? Are they changing the lore? How will it play by comparison? Unless there is information out there I'm not aware of, we know next to nothing about what their plans are. How much they plan on bringing back and how much will be their creation. This is new territory for them regardless. It won't be until they show the actual game or start talking about it more that we get an idea of what they're doing with it. As far as we know, they could be changing so much about it that it pretty much goes through its own conceptualization pains. And didn't someone who claims to have worked for them say that they were having trouble because they underestimated what it would take? Issues are bound to come up when you've been use to one way for so long. Established franchise or not.
There seems to be a misconception about what I'm getting at here. I'm not making excuses for Playground or Microsoft. I'm saying people should expect this to take a while. Whether you are fine waiting or think it's ridiculous, I don't really care either way. I was trying to illustrate that something like this should never have been expected soon. A CG trailer and nothing since should have already been a red flag that the announcement was premature. So when you also consider that this is a whole new genre for Playground, one that they've not done anything remotely similar on, it should help to get an idea of how much longer we could be talking here.
CherryFalls
Banned
The next one
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Avowed might be sooner than you think.
- I think Avowed seems 2023 (low chances of slipping into 2024).
- Fable seems 2025 (low chances of releasing in 2024)
- TES6 seems 2027/2028
Hendrick's
If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
Not worried. Of all the Xbox studios, PG is the most consistent and efficient.
LeftThumbstick
Member
Rockondevil
Member
Loved the first and even really enjoyed the other two. I hope whatever this becomes doesn't tarnish a franchise that I've always hate a great time with.
One of the few franchises I've actually replayed.
One of the few franchises I've actually replayed.
AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Sorry, is anyone surprised? Do you remember who's making this? Playground games have made nothing but racing games for 10 years, this is a big step for them and they produce high quality stuff.
Don't expect Fable before 2024, honestly.
Don't expect Fable before 2024, honestly.
azertydu91
Hard to Kill
AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Yeah I'm not saying they won't, I have good faith - but Horizon took YEARS to make all the same. Fable will take time.
Hendrick's
If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
azertydu91
Hard to Kill
Exactly, the description could have simply stayed the same for some reason. We know the game was already in development four years ago.
Hendrick's
If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
Don't forget that a crunchless work culture can easily add a year or more. This is going to be normal now. Games are going to take 5+ years of development.
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azertydu91
Hard to Kill
Yeah I don't know about that, Insomniac games has no crunch and manages to churn games at a real fast rate.
TheTony316
Member
2027 will be a great year for Xbox.
Hendrick's
If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
Exceptions exist of course. Also the only game that they claimed to have no crunch was R&C. For Spider-Man they said they "cut down on crunch". Just look at Naughty Dog, notoriously the worst crunch studio. At some point there will be enough pushback and games are going to take much, much longer to release.
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azertydu91
Hard to Kill
We'll see but one year seems excessive
The Eradicator
Member
My problem with Playground developing an RPG is that the absolute worst part of Forza is the cringe dialogue from every NPC. How are they going to write a full fledged RPG that isn't just drivel? Still think Playground is a REALLY odd choice to reboot Fable.
Little Chicken
Banned
I doubt it, this has been known to be in development for the past 4 years at least, announced 2 years ago.
Pedro Motta
Gold Member
2024?
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