A new rumor is making the rounds around two Playground Games titles – and in one case, that could be very good news, while in the other it’s less so.
The UK-based Playground Games will be the star of this year’s Xbox Developer Direct, where we’ll get our first detailed look at the long-awaited Fable reboot, and also see Forza Horizon 6, the follow-up to the massively successful fifth entry, which is estimated to have been played by more than 50 million users. Of course, Game Freak’s Beast of Reincarnation and a rumored “secret” fourth game (which we covered yesterday) will also be part of the show, but these two titles are expected to take center stage in the January 22 broadcast.
Officially, both Fable and Forza Horizon 6 have only been announced for Xbox Series and PC. However, given Microsoft’s multiplatform strategy, it’s very likely they’ll arrive on other platforms too, starting with PlayStation 5. Forza Horizon 5 launched on PS5 in April and performed extremely well there, which is why some users were surprised when the new game was announced a few months ago only for Microsoft’s traditional platforms. In the latest episode of the VGC podcast (#154), Andy Robinson explained why that might be the case. According to sources he has at Playground, Forza Horizon 6 simply wasn’t ready to ship on PlayStation 5, but Fable may very well be.
“Fable’s day and date. That’s what I’ve been told. Those are the kinds of details where insiders make mistakes, right? Those are the kinds of details that can change at the last minute. The other stuff is kind of more set in stone. Yes, it’s coming to the PlayStation 5. I’d expect it to launch on the same day because I know they’ve been targeting the PS5 for a while. As for Forza Horizon 6, I don’t know the full story, but I was told that it just wasn’t ready. I don’t know how true that is because, I mean, it’s going to be huge, and that game would be huge if it launched on everything day one. You’d think that would be a hindrance for them. Even Xbox stalwarts are starting to drift away from playing on the console. It’ll have a huge PC launch, but the PS5 – look at Indiana Jones: The Great Circle did so well when it came out on PS5. It did so well when it came out on the PS5. I imagine they’ll do their best to release it as soon as possible,” Robinson said.
It is surprising, but Playground likely wouldn’t want to delay Forza Horizon 6 just to wait for the PlayStation 5 version to be ready. After all, it’s already been proven that even Forza Horizon 5’s very late arrival sparked major buzz within the PlayStation community, so a few extra months shouldn’t be an issue. On the other hand, launching Fable day one on all major platforms would boost the game’s visibility. Neither title has a release date yet, but that is expected to change at Xbox Developer Direct.
For now, it appears Playground will kick off the second quarter with Forza Horizon 6, while Fable will likely debut later in the year, though probably still ahead of Grand Theft Auto VI, if possible.
Source: WCCFTech
