• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Report: Avowed, Fable to be in the Xbox Games Showcase

01011001

Banned
Do you really think that this comparison is reasonable? lol

that is a very reasonable comparison.
Fable 2 and Uncharted 2 released relatively close to eachother, they released on similarly successful platfoms, and both were exclusive to their respective systems.

Fable 2 sold way more, showing that the IP was very strong.

Fable only went downhill due to mismanagement from Microsoft, the push for Kinect and online games basically killed the franchise prematurely.

up until that point however, the IP was extremely popular.
selling 3 million copies of a game in a new IP on og Xbox was big... that would have been great numbers even on PS2, which had a 10x bigger install base.

Silent Hill, the whole franchise, sold 8 million copies. Fable tops that after the first 2 games. the first 4 Silent Hill games combined on all platforms sold as many copies as Fable 2 alone.

so Silent Hill is then also "not a big IP" I assume?
 
Last edited:

danklord

Gold Member
Of the two I'm more skeptical of Fable because if the 343 experiment is anything to go on, just assigning the game to Playground doesn't necessarily mean it's going to have the same magic. This an unproven team trying to define what a "Fable" experience is. Tough task, but I'd love to be blown away.

I have more faith in Avowed to be something special because of Obsidian's track record.
 
Last edited:

01011001

Banned
Of the two I'm more skeptical of Fable because if the 343 experiment is anything to go on, just assigning the gaming to Playground doesn't necessarily mean it's going to have the same magic. This a unproven team trying to define what a "Fable" experience is. Tough task, but I'd love to be blown away.

I have more faith in Avowed to be something special because of Obsidian's track record.

this is so out of left field that I assume that the team went to Phil or the other higher ups at Xbox and pitched the idea.

343i was a different story, that team was assembled only for Halo, and self admittedly hired people that didn't like Halo in order to "bring something fresh" to the franchise.
 
Silent Hill, the whole franchise, sold 8 million copies. Fable tops that after the first 2 games. the first 4 Silent Hill games combined on all platforms sold as many copies as Fable 2 alone.

so Silent Hill is then also "not a big IP" I assume?
america burn GIF
 
I'm hoping that it feels like a first person PoE/BG and not just Obsidian's take on Skyrim. I'm sure I'll enjoy it either way.

Obsidian makes very different games from Bethesda.

I think Obsidian focuses much more on story and writing, solving quests, and how you solve them.

Bethesda RPGs i find to be much more sandbox experiences. You don't even get xp for solving the main quest. All your xp in Skyrim is earned by performing character development activities like combat, lockpicking etc.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
I have high hopes for Avowed. I hope it is somewhat like Skyrim but next-gen and with also a few fresh ideas.

I don't think Fable will be for me unless they do make it darker and more like The Witcher. Hellblade 2's last showing disappointed me, so my hyped is deflated for now at least.

Apart from Avowed, I hope State of Decay 3 and Everwild show up and surprise us with their visuals and gameplay.
 

Boss Mog

Member
Hype for Fable reeks of desperation. The games were decent at best. Peter Molyneux is guy who over-promised and under-delivered at every turn.

I'm not saying a new Fable game made by a new team couldn't be great but expectations should be kept in check until we actually see what's on offer here.
 

Gorgon

Member
I have high hopes for Avowed. I hope it is somewhat like Skyrim but next-gen and with also a few fresh ideas.

I don't think Fable will be for me unless they do make it darker and more like The Witcher. Hellblade 2's last showing disappointed me, so my hyped is deflated for now at least.

Apart from Avowed, I hope State of Decay 3 and Everwild show up and surprise us with their visuals and gameplay.

1) I don't think Avowed will be anyhting like Skyrim, except for the first-person combat/apellcasting and open world. It will be, I think, far more story-driven as opposed to the sandbox gameplay of Elder Scrolls.

2) I'm in the same boat. Fable is to namby-pamby for my tastes. But I'm glad they're going back to it and hope that the fans get what they want. It has the pontential to attract more people to the Xbox too.

3) Hellblade II...man, I loved what I saw. My jaw was on the floor. It looks like what I would expect more from Sony back in the day, highly experimental games with AA or even AAA budgets like Shadow of the Colossus, Heavy Rain, etc. Roles seem to have inverted this gen. Hellblade II trailer was fucking insane, like a fever dream on mushrooms. It felt like someone was on a LSD trip after reading Conrad's Heart of Drakness and decided to ask Robert Eggers to combine it with The Northman. I haven't been so excited for a game for more than a decade. Hellblade 1 was dope too.

4) Hoping to see State of Decay 3 in-engine, but I doubt it.
 
For a AAA RPG who is supposed to be one of the biggest Xbox's games?

Well, considering the Xbox's quality of management and all the rumours surround Fable, I don't be really surprised if it have the same quality than Redfall, and in that circunstances is possible see the game being released early.
With the pedigree and quality of management that Playground has, the stakes are high. They built a new RPG team from the ground up, just for fable. What was giving them troubles, was ForzaTech. An engine not initially designed for RPG game development, which forced PG to retrofit stuff of their own and design new engine tools from scratch (which caused internal delays). If they mess up(chances for this are low), they'll have a lot to make up for, as well as a big axe on top of their head. So the heat is high, in addition to fully delivering on their vision for a next gen fable (which will set the foundation for things going forward). Hopefully, they deliver. Some staff from Their new team had to learn RPG development from scratch after all.
 
Last edited:
Fable 1 sold 3 million copies on OG Xbox alone. Fable 2 around 5 million on 360.

3.5 million copies of Uncharted 2 sold on PS3 🤷 a console that had way more success than the og Xbox, and about the same level of success as the 360
While it doesn't really change your points, I don't know were you get your numbers. The only number I was able to find for F2 is approximately 3,5 millions copies sold one year and a half after it was published. Uncharted 2 sold 3.8 millions in its first eleven months and 6.5 my million copies as of 2015
 

kaizenkko

Member
With the pedigree and quality of management that Playground has, the stakes are high. They built a new RPG team from the ground up, just for fable. What was giving them troubles, was ForzaTech. An engine not initially designed for RPG game development, which forced PG to retrofit stuff of their own and design new engine tools from scratch (which caused internal delays). If they mess up(chances for this are low), they'll have a lot to make up for, as well as a big axe on top of their head. So the heat is high, in addition to fully delivering on their vision for a next gen fable (which will set the foundation for things going forward). Hopefully, they deliver. Some staff from Their new team had to learn RPG development from scratch after all.
Playground definitly know how to make games. Racing games at least. I'm still receous about this RPG, but the show will be live in just a few hours, so I think it's better to wait, but a lot of people will certaly be dissapointed. lol
 
With the pedigree and quality of management that Playground has, the stakes are high. They built a new RPG team from the ground up, just for fable. What was giving them troubles, was ForzaTech. An engine not initially designed for RPG game development, which forced PG to retrofit stuff of their own and design new engine tools from scratch (which caused internal delays). If they mess up(chances for this are low), they'll have a lot to make up for, as well as a big axe on top of their head. So the heat is high, in addition to fully delivering on their vision for a next gen fable (which will set the foundation for things going forward). Hopefully, they deliver. Some staff from Their new team had to learn RPG development from scratch after all.
Interesting about the Forza Tech issues, different genre I suppose throws up problems but the tech itself is pretty incredible IMO. I'm expecting Fable to be state of the art visually at least.
 

Riky

$MSFT
Of the two I'm more skeptical of Fable because if the 343 experiment is anything to go on, just assigning the game to Playground doesn't necessarily mean it's going to have the same magic. This an unproven team trying to define what a "Fable" experience is. Tough task, but I'd love to be blown away.

I have more faith in Avowed to be something special because of Obsidian's track record.

People seem to presume that the people who made Forza Horizon are making Fable, that's not really the case it's a new team and the people they have hired have a lot of experience in the genre and a good engine to work on.
 
Interesting about the Forza Tech issues, different genre I suppose throws up problems but the tech itself is pretty incredible IMO. I'm expecting Fable to be state of the art visually at least.
It does have Forza in the name after all. Xbox apparently mandated the use of in house tech for the development of exclusive ips, which makes it hard, but not impossible for PG to use UE5, should that become necessary. But, they know their way ForzaTech and even developed tools of their own, that they then baked into the engine pipeline. So I expect that they've already gotten through that hurdle.
 
Avowed and Perfect Dark are on UE5 and Gears will be so that's simply untrue.
Yes, but those studios were already building games on that engine before(UE). I meant studios that were already using in house engines. PG has been using ForzaTech for a decade and it was said that Xbox mandated the use of in-house tools for the studios that were already building games on said in-house tools.
 
Last edited:

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Yes, but those studios were already building games on that engine before(UE). I meant studios that were already using in house engines. PG has been using ForzaTech for a decade and it was said that Xbox mandated the use of in-house tools for the studios that were already building games on said in-house tools.


 

Ceadeus

Gold Member
I am. The one teaser forever ago was awesome. I hope it doesn’t just end up being some generic Skyrim wannabe tho.
I hope so too but I'm optimistic. Pillars of eternity is a world unic enough to set it apart from TES.

Lol I want it to be good so maybe I'm hyping myself up too much but I kind of trust Obsidian, they're talented.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
this is so out of left field that I assume that the team went to Phil or the other higher ups at Xbox and pitched the idea.

Good guess. Playground themselves pitched it to Phil/Xbox leadership.

What was giving them troubles, was ForzaTech. An engine not initially designed for RPG game development, which forced PG to retrofit stuff of their own and design new engine tools from scratch (which caused internal delays).

Interesting about the Forza Tech issues, different genre I suppose throws up problems but the tech itself is pretty incredible IMO. I'm expecting Fable to be state of the art visually at least.

The only source for this ForzaTech rumor is a random YouTuber who showed up on ColtEastwood’s channel.
Takes quite some trust to 100% accept this as fact. Certainly doesn’t seem credible, since anything they’d have needed to adapt would have been captured in the 2017 - 2020 pre-production stage, and the engine itself has a history of delivering open world games.

The only true insider information we had from that Spanish developer made no mention of engine issues, either.
 
Good guess. Playground themselves pitched it to Phil/Xbox leadership.





The only source for this ForzaTech rumor is a random YouTuber who showed up on ColtEastwood’s channel.
Takes quite some trust to 100% accept this as fact. Certainly doesn’t seem credible, since anything they’d have needed to adapt would have been captured in the 2017 - 2020 pre-production stage, and the engine itself has a history of delivering open world games.

The only true insider information we had from that Spanish developer made no mention of engine issues, either.
And I totally get that. Besides, game was in pre-production when the reveal cinematic trailer was shown back in 2020. Back then and a bit into 2021, PG were still building up their new RPG team. Remember, ForzaTech wasn't initially built for RPG development, it was built for racing games, so PG had to build and retrofit new engine tools themselves, before even fully muscling ahead with full production of Fable, which, if I had to hazard a guess, I would say started in late 2021 after enough Devs joined the new team.
 
Last edited:

Arachnid

Member
Silent Hill, the whole franchise, sold 8 million copies. Fable tops that after the first 2 games. the first 4 Silent Hill games combined on all platforms sold as many copies as Fable 2 alone.

so Silent Hill is then also "not a big IP" I assume?
coritiba-vs-gremio-juiz.gif
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom