Gamescom saw a significant pile of Sony announcements, but Microsoft revealed some important news of their own: the next installment in Lionhead's blockbuster RPG franchise Fable. While the Fable series has always focused on allowing players to be a hero or villain, Fable III will allow players to become ruler of Albion and choose between being a kind monarch or a brutal dictator.
“We’ve spent a lot of time at Lionhead thinking about how we can innovate the gameplay and progress the world of the Fable games for its third chapter, and we’re confident that players won’t second-guess what we have planned for Fable III,” said Molyneux, who also serves as creative director of Europe, the Middle East and Africa for Microsoft Game Studios. “Though I can’t give too much away right now, players should expect to have to make much tougher choices with far wider consequences than ever before in Albion — and with many more interactive adventure elements.”
Additionally, it was announced that Fable II will see an episodic release on Xbox Live. The first of the five Fable II: Game Episodes will be made available over Xbox Live on September 29. The episodes of Fable II have all the game features and Achievements of the full game and are fully compatible with the disc version of Falbe II if that is bought later.
“With the launch of Games on Demand on Xbox Live, we have a great tool in place to deliver classic titles in an incredibly convenient fashion,” said Phil Spencer, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios. “With the Fable II episodic model, we’re encouraging people to experience the first chapter of the game for free, then move onto other chapters when they are ready. It’s a unique model and one that will appeal to gamers who’ve been hesitant to dive full into the original retail release.”
The episodic model with a full retail game is an interesting experiment and we're curious to see how it will turn out.
