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Matts Booty on Fable: "Giving Fable to the racing team [Playground] could be a little bit of a headscratcher, but they have proven that they get it"

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2022/09/xboxs-matt-booty-is-excited-to-show-the-new-fable-game
In a special storytime session at this year's PAX, Head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty was asked what's the latest on the new Fable title.

As much as he would love to share more with fans, apparently, Playground doesn't want to reveal anything just yet. Here's exactly what he had to say:

"Part of my job is giving air cover to the team, they don't want to show stuff early before it's ready to go, but if there is one game where that is kind of flipped around where every time I see something, and I say "we should show this" it's Fable, because there's a lot of cool stuff...The team has made it very clear that I'm not going to be able to show anything until it's ready.
"Playground, just what I'll say is that the craft and dedication that they brought to Forza Horizon, every bit of that is going to be applied to Fable and they get it...let's be honest, giving Fable to the racing team could be a little bit of a headscratcher, but they have proven that they get it, and I'm excited for when the time comes to be able to show more."
This latest update follows rumours in recent months, raising concerns about the scope of the project. These concerns were also stamped out by the development team - stating how this process was a normal and necessary part of game development. Based on Matt Booty's latest comment as well, it sounds like the new Fable is coming along nicely.

So Matt saw something that he thought was worth showing, but apparently his bosses over at subsidiary Playground games told him to not show anything or reveal anything because they are not ready. You know, the leader who manages all of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty.

Apparently there's nothing wrong with development, Playground has this on ice, but you would think he could get a few screen shots to show people that development is going smoothly, but you see he's only the boss of Xbox game Studios, so he has to report to Playground games first, only if they say it's ok can he show something as simple as one teaser screenshot. But at least we now know Fable is in good hands, or at least that's what one would be led to assume based on Matt Bootys commentary.

With that said, he never said when would be a good time. If it's as far along as he implies they should have a trailer or some material to show at TGS, but I'm not so sure that's going to happen.
 
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You can't always use the past to predict the future but can anyone recall a studio switching to a completely different genre like this, and the game turning out well? (Situations like this are rare).
 
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but you see he's only the boss of Xbox game Studios, so he has to report to Playground games first, only if they say it's ok can he show something as simple as one teaser screenshot

This is how healthy business relationships work – the bosses trust their experts instead of deciding stuff against their will.
 
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Mr Hyde

Member
You can't always use the past to predict the future but can anyone recall a studio switching to a completely different genre like this, and the game turning out well? (Situations like this are rare).

Naughty Dog switched from cute platformers to post apocalyptic action adventure.

Guerilla switched from Killzone to Horizon.

CDPR switched from celebrated open world medieval fantasy to a live action trainwreck.

Everything is possible. You just gotta believe in your vision.
 
Naughty Dog switched from cute platformers to post apocalyptic action adventure.

Guerilla switched from Killzone to Horizon.

CDPR switched from celebrated open world medieval fantasy to a live action trainwreck.

These aren’t really the best examples lol

Crash and Jak to uncharted is like a natural progression, the aesthetic changed but its still a platformer/shooter at heart

Killzone and guerrilla biggest differences are that one is open world and 3rd person, they are still both shooters

CDPR pretty much jsut went from 3rd person WRPG to a 1st person WRPG, with shooting

A company known for making an arcade racer going to an open world choice driven rpg is entirely different
 

Lupin25

Member
Naughty Dog switched from cute platformers to post apocalyptic action adventure.

Guerilla switched from Killzone to Horizon.

CDPR switched from celebrated open world medieval fantasy to a live action trainwreck.

Everything is possible. You just gotta believe in your vision.

Wasn’t quite successful tho. Going from 3rd person - 1st person.

I think for Naughty Dog going from making platformers to games with platforming in them was more of a natural progression for them. The masterful storytelling came completely left field, personally.
 
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Mr Hyde

Member
These aren’t really the best examples lol

Boombox Shut Up GIF
 
Forza horizon is an open world done to damn near perfection, it's obviously still a large transition, but you're obviously attempting to downplay the fact that they know full fucking well how to build an open world

Do they know how to animate believable characters, balanced combat systems, branch narrative style story telling, non-car traversal, proper rewarding loot and quest systems, etc.

They are total mystery outside of the racer genre, the only thing that translates is the actual landscape design
 
Naughty Dog switched from cute platformers to post apocalyptic action adventure.

Guerilla switched from Killzone to Horizon.

CDPR switched from celebrated open world medieval fantasy to a live action trainwreck.

Everything is possible. You just gotta believe in your vision.

Jak 2 and 3 were not cute platformers and were post apocalyptical action adventures themselves to a point, especially the Jak 3.

Live action trainwreck?
 
Naughty Dog switched from cute platformers to post apocalyptic action adventure.

Guerilla switched from Killzone to Horizon.

CDPR switched from celebrated open world medieval fantasy to a live action trainwreck.

Everything is possible. You just gotta believe in your vision.
True but racing and open world fantasy action RPG are about as different as you can get. They've proven they can do quality work it's just now they have to do so many things they haven't done in a previous game.
 
Do they know how to animate believable characters, balanced combat systems, branch narrative style story telling, non-car traversal, proper rewarding loot and quest systems, etc.

They are total mystery outside of the racer genre, the only thing that translates is the actual landscape design
They added a lot of new people with experience in the areas you're worried about....

It's a well run studio, no reason to worry until they give us a reason, although something tells me you're coming in with a bias
 

Kimahri

Banned
Do they know how to animate believable characters, balanced combat systems, branch narrative style story telling, non-car traversal, proper rewarding loot and quest systems, etc.

They are total mystery outside of the racer genre, the only thing that translates is the actual landscape design

Maybe that's why they hired a ton of people with experience in those things.

seth meyers GIF by Late Night with Seth Meyers
 

Ozriel

M$FT
These aren’t really the best examples lol

Crash and Jak to uncharted is like a natural progression, the aesthetic changed but its still a platformer/shooter at heart

Killzone and guerrilla biggest differences are that one is open world and 3rd person, they are still both shooters

CDPR pretty much jsut went from 3rd person WRPG to a 1st person WRPG, with shooting

A company known for making an arcade racer going to an open world choice driven rpg is entirely different

“They both have shooting in it, so they’re similar”

By your logic, Forza Horizon and Fable are similar since they’re both open world games.

Naughty Dog switched from cute platformers to post apocalyptic action adventure.

Guerilla switched from Killzone to Horizon.

CDPR switched from celebrated open world medieval fantasy to a live action trainwreck.

Everything is possible. You just gotta believe in your vision.

Killer instinct Season 1 (Xbox One) was Double Helix’s first ever fighting game.
Their previous games included stuff like GI Joe and Silent Hill Homecoming.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
Rare have done:

Fighting games - Killer instinct
2d beatemups sidescrollers - battletoads
racers: diddy kong racer
fps: goldeneye, perfect dark
platformers: donkey kong, banjo, conker
action adventure - starfox adventure

frigging kinect sports

And a gaas in sea of thieves. Heck they even made wrestling games back in the day.


Epic went from Unreal, to gears of war to fortnite.


343i also went from making Halo to (hopefully) flipping burgers
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Do they know how to animate believable characters, balanced combat systems, branch narrative style story telling, non-car traversal, proper rewarding loot and quest systems, etc.

They are total mystery outside of the racer genre, the only thing that translates is the actual landscape design
It's depends on how much experience the team has, we don't know there experience, we can say for sure though that the experience they have is not just making Forza.
 

Jinzo Prime

Member
Camelot Software has gone from JRPGs to sports games, and back again over thier 30 year history; Shinning Force, Golden Sun, Mario Golf and Tennis all have the same director.

The only concern for the project I have is Matt Booty himself!
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Do they know how to animate believable characters, balanced combat systems, branch narrative style story telling, non-car traversal, proper rewarding loot and quest systems, etc.

They are total mystery outside of the racer genre, the only thing that translates is the actual landscape design

Why are you so concerned though ? Let them make their game, we can judge them based on the output.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Considering it's literally years away, I'd be massively fucking disappointed if it looks like hogwarts (which I think looks pretty good)
Depends how this gen goes I suppose. Hogwarts has some impressive particle and smoke effects.

But I agree,one would expect better for this gen, but so far nothing has been much more then ultra PC versions with a few extras
 

Kimahri

Banned
Called it lol

Developer of fable made black and white before this and that's it

Fable has a history of situations like this, go choke on a sip of water nerd
Uuuhhh, Lionhead were made up of plenty of Bullfrog people. So not just black n white, but Syndicate, Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper, Populous and more.

Technically the first Fable was made by big blue box, also many ex bullfrog peopl, and later absorbed into lionhead iirc.
 
Depends how this gen goes I suppose. Hogwarts has some impressive particle and smoke effects.

But I agree,one would expect better for this gen, but so far nothing has been much more then ultra PC versions with a few extras
We haven't seen many current gen exclusives, which this is...

Hill that I'm willing to die on, it has literally no excuse for looking similar or worse than a cross gen game


Applies for literally every AAA current gen only game
.
 
Uuuhhh, Lionhead were made up of plenty of Bullfrog people. So not just black n white, but Syndicate, Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper, Populous and more.

Technically the first Fable was made by big blue box, also many ex bullfrog peopl, and later absorbed into lionhead iirc.
And fable is being worked on by plenty of people not related to forza, what's your point?

You're clearly looking for a reason to slam a game that we haven't seen a glimpse of, but know it's being developed by competent people.

Wonder why?
 

Gobjuduck

Banned
You can't always use the past to predict the future but can anyone recall a studio switching to a completely different genre like this, and the game turning out well? (Situations like this are rare).

Blizzard was known for RTS games. Then they made world of Warcraft. Then they made overwatch.

Neversoft made tony hawk, then they made rhythm games.

Rare has been successful with SoT.

Respawn interactive went from FPS to an third person action Star Wars game.


Playground games is a great studio. A lot of fud, because it’s Xbox.
 
Why are you so concerned though ? Let them make their game, we can judge them based on the output.

I’m not concerned at all, just skeptical that racing devs can successfully transfer that skill set to a big western choice driven rpg

What else is there to really discuss if not for our differing opinions on how we think the project will turn out?
 
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Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
We haven't seen many current gen exclusives, which this is...

Hill that I'm willing to die on, it has literally no excuse for looking similar or worse than a cross gen game


Applies for literally every AAA current gen only game
.
I agree, but look at forspoken, imo horizon fw looks better.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I’m not concerned at all, just skeptical that racing devs can successfully transfer that skill set to a big western choice driven rpg

What else is there to really discuss if not for our differing opinions on how we think the project will turn out?

While that is true in sentiment, you're just going "but do they know this, do they know that, have they done this, have they done that".

Of course they haven't made an RPG before, but they're a studio with a good pedigree and have been staffing up accordingly. I expect them to do as well, if not better, than Guerilla moving from a linear first person shooter franchise to an open world third person action game.
 
I agree, but look at forspoken, imo horizon fw looks better.
Fair point for the post you quoted, in another I emphasized that it's first party,which should make a huge difference.

As for forspoken, 3rd party, and the development was rocky. That being said I think it still looks pretty, regardless of the corny writing and setting.

Maybe I've missed something, but all I've really seen of Harry Potter was the gorgeous house rooms, but with the character moving slower than someone in crutches climbing up a flight of stairs
 
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