One world, many games: the future of Fable

Speaking in an interview with Edge Online, Lionhead’s new boss John Needham discusses the vision of the studio going forward, particularly in relation to the upcoming Xbox One exclusive co-op, Fable Legends.

Revealed at Gamescom 2013, we don’t know many of the details around Fable Legends, but we do know about the core concept. Ostensibly a dungeon-crawler, up to four player-controlled heroes will tackle challenges laid out by a player-controlled villain – a classic dungeon master vs adventurers setup. The game can also be played solo, with AI taking over the required roles.

The villain will specify creatures, minions, traps, and environmental hazards, and when the heroes arrive, will command the villainous forces against them. Players can use Microsoft’s second screen app, Smart Glass, to control the villain’s actions on the same console as a player controlling a hero.

Needham has a pedigree of note – he was CEO of Gazillion Entertainment, a developer specialising in free-to-play multiplayer online games (Marvel Heroes, Super Hero Squad Online). He was also CEO of Cryptic Studios which specialises in MMOs (City of Heroes/Villains, Star Trek Online, Neverwinter). He’s also done a stint in a senior position at Sony Online Entertainment (another online game specialist).

Needham replaced Lionhead’s co-founder and Fable progenitor Peter Molyneux when he departed in April 2013, and Needham also serves as Microsoft’s head of European publishing.

Fable Legends screenshot

Adding this all up, we have a man who loves to work on MMO games, has a publishing powerhouse at his fingertips, and is now in charge of one of the most successful IPs of recent generations. Enter Fable Legends, a co-operative RPG set in the familiar lands of Albion that breaks the traditional Fable mould.

“I am the person pivoting Lionhead into a games-as-service studio. Legends is quite different from previous Fable games,” Needham told Edge.

Legends will have a lengthy life-cycle, and Needham hints that future Fable game outings can simply be built into the existing Fable Legends world. This implies that, once a core Fable universe is in place, adventures in that universe will be sold as separate bolt-on packages.

“We can do other styles of Fable games, and keep them within Fable Legends. My plan is that Legends is essentially a platform for almost everything Fable going forward. It’s a long-range plan, of five to ten years, where we’re going to build and keep building onto Fable Legends. That’s the nature of games as a service – you keep adding systems and features and content,” said Needham.

“There are lots of examples in the MMOG world of keeping players engaged for that length of time, with new content constantly flowing into the game, and bolting on new [modes] into your game to keep it fresh. It all comes down to listening to your community, building content into the game that they want, and then iterating upon that.”

Needham said that no business models have been considered at this stage (free-to-play, subscription, once-off purchase) as the team is first focussing on creating a great game.