Peter Molyneux hints at new Fable spin-off – refuses to explain further

Michael BeckwithFriday 13 Oct 2023 6:00 pm

Fable reboot trailer — Fable – looks like Microsoft never copyrighted the term Albion (Picture: Microsoft)

Despite it seemingly sharing a setting with Fable, there’s no indication that Microsoft is involved with Peter Molyneux’s new game.

A few months ago, Peter Molyneux – creator of Fable, Black & White, and Dungeon Keeper – announced that he was working on a new game beyond just his creepy NFT game. The game was said to be closer to his earlier work, although he never said exactly what it is.

He didn’t share any real details beyond it featuring a new mechanic no one’s ever seen before (so typical Molyneux overpromising) and being set in a familiar environment.

What makes this environment so familiar? Apparently, it’s none other than Albion, the setting of the Fable games, though that raises a whole host of questions regarding whether or not he’s working with Microsoft.

Molyneux shared this comments in a brief tweet that revealed the game’s name as MOAT and stated that he’s starting a blog to chronicle how he designs games.

‘This may be a decision I live to regret, but I am starting a regular blog about the crazy way I design games; namely a new game set in the land of Albion called MOAT,’ writes Molyneux.

He never specifies if it’s the same Albion from Fable, but his statement doesn’t imply any other alternative.

How is this going to work with Microsoft owning the rights to Fable? Licence? Or is this Albion not the Albion from Fable?
— Bongzz (@donkeybongzz) October 13, 2023

There’s no indication of Microsoft being involved and if this is an official Fable project, surely there’d be a more high profile announcement than this.

It’s very unlikely that Microsoft would just let Molyneux use the Fable setting for an unrelated video game, so his comments are all around pretty weird.

One possible explanation is that while the name is the same, Molyneux’s Albion won’t be the same as Fable’s. Albion is an old name for Great Britain, not something that was just made up for Fable, and it’s not clear if Microsoft was able to trademark it.

Although Molyneux’s Lionhead Studios would’ve been the one responsible for that, when the original Fable came out, so maybe Microsoft, for some reason, let him keep the name.

There’s actually an Albion Online video game that began in 2017 and is still running today, with Microsoft apparently making no attempt to shut it down or change its name.

We had hoped Molyneux would have clarified things further in his new blog, but he unfortunately doesn’t provide any additional info about MOAT.

As for Fable itself, the newest entry from Playground Games saw a new trailer during Xbox’s summer showcase, but it was very brief and still didn’t offer any sort of launch window.