Every game from Fable dev will be ‘online focused’

Is this a foible or are they able to do it right?

At gamescom, Dale brought us a preview of Xbox One exclusive Fable Legends, which eschews pets and sidekicks for full, four player cooperative play. You can also apparently play as the game’s villain, setting traps and controlling minions. As a fan of Gauntlet and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, it doesn’t sound like the worst thing, though the fact that you’ll be saddled with three AI if you opt for solo play is a bummer.

It seems the idea of online play is going to factor completely in Fable Legends developer Lionhead Studios’ efforts going forward. Talking to DigitalSpy, studio head John Needham said, “‘every game’ in future will have ‘connected’ elements.” Needham, who comes from Star Trek Online and City of Heroes developer Cryptic, cites inspiration from Journey and Dark Souls in innovating the online space.

The thing we thought a lot about was [when making Fable Legends], part of what makes Fable special is the interaction with the characters and the NPC. But what happens if you had interactions with other real people in the same world as you?

I’ll tell you what. They’ll talk about how they banged my mother last night.

Lionhead now an online-focused studio starting with ‘Fable Legends’ [DigitalSpy]