Playground Games is best known for developing the Forza Horizon franchise of Xbox exclusive racing games. Recent news has come to light that the developer has hired a host of veterans from venerable companies like BioWare, Guerilla Games, Ninja Theory, Rocksteady Games, and EA Motive. What could this pool of world-class talent be developing? They’re going to work on an action RPG, which is shrouded in secrecy. However, it brings older rumors of Fable 4 back to the surface.
According to GamesIndustry.biz, these new employees hired by Playground Games include principal environment artist Scotty Brown from EA Motive, who has worked on Star Wars Battlefront 2, as well as lead environment artist Noel Lukasewich, who has worked on all four Mass Effect titles. Joining them are narrative director Martin Lancaster from Rocksteady Studios, who has worked on the Batman Arkham games, and principal animator Chris Goodall from Ninja Theory, who has worked on Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice.
The last two recruits include lead technician Rob den Dekker and lead UI artist Joe McKernan, both of whom have worked at Playground Games in the past. McKernan also worked on Horizon Zero Dawn at Guerilla Games. Now that we know all of the new hires, there are several reasons why they might be signing up to work on Fable 4. Firstly, there were rumors circulating around earlier this year which claimed that Microsoft had approved of a Fable sequel and that Playground Games was going to be developing the game.
Another reason is that the Fable franchise consists of action RPG games which are Xbox exclusives. Last month at E3 2018, Microsoft announced that it has acquired five studios, which includes Playground Games. It makes sense that one of Microsoft’s most trusted first-party studios, which it now owns, would be developing a sequel to one of the most iconic Xbox exclusive game franchises.
