Xbox admits Fable will no longer meet its 2025 release date

Admittedly, Fable never had an exact launch window to begin with (Xbox Games Studios)

One of the few Xbox exclusives Microsoft had this year has been delayed, with the head of Xbox Game Studios swearing it will be worth the wait.

While most of the games on Microsoft’s release schedule are set to launch on multiple platforms, the company does have a couple of Xbox exclusives still to come.

Following Obsidian’s Avowed (which launched last week), Microsoft intends to release South Of Midnight and its long awaited Fable reboot exclusively for Xbox Series X/S and PC later this year.

At least, that was the plan. It turns out Fable won’t be ready for 2025 after all, with Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan trying to soften the blow by sharing new gameplay footage.

Duncan dropped the news during an interview with Xbox Wire, though he didn’t provide an exact reason for why the delay was warranted, only saying it’s been decided to push Fable back to 2026 so it can be given more time.

‘While I know that’s not maybe the news people want to hear, what I want to assure people of is that it’s definitely worth the wait,’ said Duncan, expressing ‘unequivocal confidence’ in the development team at Playground Games.

You can see some new footage from a pre-alpha build of the game from the 15:56 mark in the video below, which includes some very quick glimpses at Fable’s combat and some of the enemies players will get to fight, such as a giant chicken and what could be a werewolf.

Duncan was deliberately vague about the footage shown to avoid spoiling too much, only adding that he’s very pleased with what he’s played so far: ‘I played some of the city elements, I played some of the quests, I played some of the combat, I played a boss battle, I’ve used magic. Like it felt amazing, and I had a great time.’

News of the delay is bound to be disappointing, but it’s not too surprising either. Microsoft never committed to an exact date beyond a vague 2025 window and while there have been a few trailers for Fable, it still feels like we know very little about it.

No real story details have been shared, and neither Microsoft nor Playground Games have elaborated on what the combat is like, beyond that it’ll feature multiple weapons and types of magic. Insider reports have compared the combat to The Witcher 3, but it’s difficult to tell how similar they are based on the short snippets seen so far.

It’s also believed that Fable could make the jump to PlayStation 5 anyway, with one insider saying the ‘era of Xbox having permanent exclusives is over.’ If so, it remains to be seen if a PlayStation 5 version of Fable will come even later or if Microsoft will make the game a multiplatform launch.