Ah, the typical big capitalist company with an infinitely deep wallet unwilling to commit a more extensive budget technologically to one of its anticipated products…

The Fable reboot has been announced by Microsoft for over two years now (and we heard rumors of it before that). Playground Games, the developers behind the Forza Horizon series, are behind the project, and despite all the time that has passed, the game hasn’t been in the press; a playable version should have been presented in that time, right? According to Jez Corden writing for Windows Central, there’s a good reason for that: Microsoft itself.

The Redmond-based tech company insists that Xbox Game Studios’ games are created on its in-house developed engines (there is an exception: The Initiative is working with Crystal Dynamics on Perfect Dark, which is supposed to run on Unreal Engine). So Playground might be under pressure from above not to use Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 but will likely have to build their RPG on the ForzaTech engine. Electronic Arts has previously pushed Frostbite, which is why BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and Anthem all felt a hassle. Something like this also held back the game’s performance in Halo Infinite (although 343 Industries used a new technology, Slipspace).

It is all unofficial, but we’ve seen it before at Electronic Arts, and history loves to repeat itself. Let’s ask Microsoft why it doesn’t allow Playground Games to borrow id Software’s technology. After all, a well-optimized engine for FPSes, id Tech 7, could be a good fit for Fable. It would have to be rewritten for third-person gameplay, but it might be a good idea to allow Microsoft to keep the technology in-house.

Fable is coming to Xbox Series and PC. Best not to guess when it will be released.

Source. WCCFTech