Microsoft Is Building Fable With The Forza Engine
While Microsoft is largely remembered for bringing Master Chief to life with the Halo games, it's important to remember the other first-party favourites that have put the Xbox up against Nintendo and Sony's console offerings. Alongside our numerous dives into Halo, both Fable and Forza have helped solidify Microsoft's Xbox exclusives. Although the two are set in very different worlds, it turns out the upcoming Fable reboot is being built with the Forza engine.
The fanciful adventures of The Hero of Oakvale and Theresa have become one of Microsoft's most beloved game series. Packed to the brim with role-playing action, enchanted protagonists, and spell-binding stories, the Fable games have soared in popularity over the years, adding a little Nintendo inspiration into a typically in-depth Xbox exclusive RPG.
First hitting the Xbox in 2004, Fable was an imaginative RPG that took players into the lawless world of Albion. Taking control of the Hero of Oakvale, players set off through the fantasy realm to battle monsters and magic. It wasn't exactly groundbreaking in terms of story, but this Lord of the Rings-inspired title was a huge hit and spawned a whole franchise of sequels and spin-offs.
Alongside the three main games, there was a remastered version of the original (including The Lost Chapters) in 2014, the spin-off Fable Legends: The Journey, and the Kickstarter card game that was Fable Fortune. Despite years of development hell, a new era is almost upon us.
The mercenary-esque mythical land of Albion is not one that is familiar with high-powered Formula 1 cars, style with huge engines and sleek spoilers. The two worlds of Fable and Forza Motorsport could not be further apart, yet the Microsoft-owned games will have a commonly shared developer who intends to run both games on the same engine.
Why is Fable using the Forza engine?
A post on the Microsoft careers site confirms Turn 10 Studios is looking for a Software Engineer. Turn 10 is known for the Forza games, but an interesting takeaway from the description is that it'll have involvement in Fable. The listing reads as follows: "Do you want to have a major impact on 3 AAA titles in development across 2 beloved Xbox franchises? ForzaTech is the engine, tools, and pipelines that drive both the Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon series of games. In addition to adding new features like raytracing to support the next console generation, we are also enriching the toolset to support an open world action RPG – Fable".
The lucky candidate needs a wealth of gaming experience, but what else would you expect from someone that's going to bring Fable to life on the Xbox Series X/S? When it comes to Fable, details are still relatively thin on the ground. Announced at last year's divisive Microsoft Games Showcase, Fable showed off a glossy cinematic trailer that included all the fun and frolics we're used to. Despite a move to a new developer - with Playground Games taking over from Lionhead Studios - Microsoft is keeping its cards close to its chest.
The Forza engine, despite playing host to the fastest cars on the planet, provides beautiful scenery. Depicting some of the world's nicest landscapes around the world-famous racecourses, the engine will allow for precise movement graphics and some magical surroundings.
What does Fable using the Forza engine mean?
Looking at the bigger picture, it's interesting to note that Team 10 handles the motorsport arm of the Forza series. We're guessing Fable won't suddenly have fairies jumping over mounds on dirtbikes, but it's not outside the realms of possibility that there could be some form of vehicular movement. More likely, Fable will use the souped-up graphics of the ForzaTech engine. It'll definitely take some tweaking to turn an engine that's been solely used on racing games into something for an open-world RPG, but we can't wait to see how it turns out.
When it comes to what's next for Forza, the job description's mention of “a major impact on 3 AAA titles in development", which could be a nice nod to a new Forza Horizon game. It's not official yet, but with Forza Motorsport 8 already confirmed, another Horzion could be revving its engine from the sidelines. Looking at the backdrop of the Forza games using the ForzaTech engine, it's no surprise that this will be used to bring the wild and wonderful world of Albion to life.
When is Fable coming out?
So far, the title is still in its works, and Microsoft has yet to label any expected time frame as to when we could see Fable come out.
Interestingly, the developers also seem to be splitting their efforts thrice, as the job listing says the role will “have a major impact on 3 AAA titles in development across two beloved Xbox franchises”. This indicates that the development of Fable will tie into the upkeeping of Forza Motorsport and the development of the next Forza Horizon instalment.
With this in mind, we may not see Fable as soon as we had first hoped, although the engine work will surely make it worth the wait.
Additional reporting by Jack Marsh.
Images via Microsoft
