Rejected Fable 4 Pitch Was Darker, Grittier & Set in Victorian London

Rejected Fable 4 Pitch Was Darker, Grittier & Ready in Victorian London

Regrettably, two months ago nosotros had to report the cancellation of Fable Legends alongside the proposed closure of Lionhead Studios, which didn't really know what was going on behind the scenes until the last moment.

A few hours ago, Eurogamer posted a gigantic article on Lionhead'due south history, with many of the key figures in the studio talking nigh what really happened over the course of many years.

Perhaps one of the key turns in Lionhead's history might accept been the rejected Fable 4 pitch. Art Director John McCormack was the atomic number 82 architect of what would have been a huge change: Fable 4 should have been set in a Victorian London, sporting a far darker and grittier setting than previous entries.

Nosotros wanted to hit the late Victorian proper far out Jules Verne shit, this kind of weird fucked up London environment.

And that was going to exist Fable 4, and information technology would be darker and grittier. And because it was R-rated it would take the prostitutes and the humour. I was like, man, this is going to be fucking brilliant, and everybody was really into information technology.

It was like, y'all've reached your cap of players for RPG on Xbox and you lot need to find a mode to double that, and y'all're not going to do it with RPG. I thought, yeah we tin.

I said, look, merely give u.s. iv years, proper finance, give us the chance Mass Event has, Skyrim has, the games at the time. They're getting four years and a lot of upkeep. Give us that, and we'll requite yous something that'll get you your players. Nah, you lot've had three shots and y'all've but tripled the money. It'southward not expert plenty. Fuck off. That's what I was bellyaching about.

This was in 2022. McCormack would leave the company shortly thereafter, with Microsoft asking Lionhead to switch to games every bit a service: thus came Legend Legends (whose development started in summer 2022).

The remainder, sadly, is history. Allow's but promise this is not the end for the Fable franchise.