Fable is coming this fall, will let you kill a giant Richard Ayoade and possibly destroy the local housing market in the process

After years of near-silence, Playground Games popped up twice during today's Developer Direct showcase: The first time to show off Forza Horizon 6 and the second (and what we're here to talk about now) to finally give us a good look at Fable, its reboot of the famed RPG series. And it's setting the bar high. "Although our game is a new beginning," said game director Ralph Fulton, "I think what we're making is really faithful to the spirit of the classic Lionhead trilogy that we all love."

The core of the new Fable is freedom, choices, and consequences: Setting off in the wake of disaster as Albion's first hero in a generation, you'll explore a seamless open world, visiting new and familiar locations alike including Bowerstone, "a huge city full of contrasts: rich and poor, nobles and commoners, royalty and criminals." Your character will be fully customizable in both appearance and abilities, with access to melee and ranged combat options as well as powerful magic spells.

There's also plenty of "normal, everyday stuff" to do in Albion: Jobs, romance, home ownership, becoming a landlord and making life miserable for your tenants, which of course will be reflected in their opinions of you, which they won't be shy about expressing. Playground said in today's presentation that there are more than 1,000 unique NPCs living in Albion: "Each of them has a name, a role, a daily routine, and their own personality," and they can all be interacted with in fully voiced conversations.

Morality is also a choice in Fable, with sometimes unforeseen consequences. Early in the game, for instance, you'll meet a gardener named Dave—known in our world as Richard Ayoade—who accidentally turns himself into a giant, "and becomes a big problem." You, as the hero, get to deal with Big Dave: You can spare him, or opt to kill him instead. That might be advantageous in some ways, but if you do opt for the fatal approach, you'll have a huge, dead Richard Ayoade sprawled across the farmland for the rest of the game.

"That is going to affect house prices," cinematics director Mark Tan promised. "It will also affect what a lot of villagers think about you. Especially Dave's sister."

The one thing we did not get in today's showcase, unfortunately, is a release date, but the 2026 target is still on—Fable is set to arrive this fall, and will be available for PC on Steam and the Microsoft Store. The full Developer Direct showcase is below—the Fable bit starts at 1:07:00.