New details about the Fable reboot have emerged following the recent Xbox showcase, as well as chatter of a possible Nintendo Switch 2 port.
As was obvious from Thursday evening’s Xbox Developer Direct, the new Fable from Playground Games seems very reliant on nostalgia for the older titles.
Considering it’s been more than 15 years since the last mainline entry, Fable 3, and Playground has taken over from the long defunct Lionhead Studios, it seems the development team thought it would be best to play it safe and keep things as familiar as possible.
And yet, looking through the new footage, you can see that this new entry is missing a very important element from older entries: your dog companion.
Introduced in Fable 2, the dog would follow you everywhere and could assist in combat, find treasure, and occasionally lead you to your next objective. And much like the player character, its appearance would change depending on the moral choices you made.
This feature was brought back for Fable 3 and though it was significantly downplayed, it was still included because by that point it’d become an iconic part of the series.
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Why is there no dog companion in the new Fable?
When questioned about this by GamesRadar, Playground Games’ general manager and Fable director Ralph Fulton admitted he was ‘hoping that nobody would ask that question’ and ruled out that it was something the team simply hadn’t shown yet: ‘We do not have a dog in this game.’
IGN also quizzed Fulton about the dog’s absence, where he confessed to cutting it ‘a while back;’ a decision that was controversial even within the studio.
‘There are some folks on the team that were relishing me getting this question because I cut it a while back,’ said Fulton. Annoyingly, he didn’t offer any real explanation for the decision beyond ‘development reasons.’
Fulton continued, ‘I don’t need to go into any more detail than that, except to say there are a substantial number of people on the team who have yet to forgive me for that decision.’
It’s an especially surprising omission when Fulton’s favourite Fable game is Fable 2, calling it a ‘point of inspiration.’ That is definitely the best one, but cutting the dog companion feels like the exact opposite of a crowd pleaser. Not to mention it was one of the most distinctive features the series had.
What doesn’t help is that Pokémon developer Game Freak showed off its new action roleplayer Beast Of Reincarnation ahead of Fable in the Developer Direct and that does have a dog (or rather wolf) that assists you in battle.
At the same time, though, Fulton has stressed that Playground’s aim isn’t to emulate all of Lionhead’s work, which is why the new Fable is considered a reboot and not a sequel.
‘This has to be Playground game because I’m a really firm believer that the personality and the character of a team is visible in the work they do and the games they make,’ Fulton said in an Xbox Wire post.
‘And I think you can see Lionhead in that original trilogy. It would be pointless, I think, for us to try and ape that. And that’s really at the heart of the reboot question, right? It felt imperative to me that this was a reboot because we’re starting again as Playground Games, and making Playground’s Fable.’
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The new Fable has reportedly been in the works since 2018, only getting a formal announcement in 2020. It’s clearly been a big undertaking, especially since Microsoft had to rope in Deus Ex studio Eidos-Montréal to assist in development.
It was meant to finally launch last year but was delayed to 2026. Microsoft merely said it needed more development time, but perhaps it was also to get the PlayStation 5 version ready since it’ll now be launching on Sony’s console day one alongside the planned Xbox Series X/S and PC versions – unlike Forza Horizon 6, which is also by Playground Games.
Speaking of ports, there’s new chatter of a potential Nintendo Switch 2 version, with Windows Central’s Jez Corden claiming it’s being considered internally, but not ‘100% definite.’
Microsoft wants its games on as many platforms as possible nowadays, but while a couple of Xbox games have made the jump to the original Switch, such as Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment, there’s still been nothing for the Switch 2.
Xbox head Phil Spencer has repeatedly said he wants to support Nintendo’s new console but the company is yet to announce anything.
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