Fable III Natal support confirmed

By Robert Purchese Published 22 October, 2009

Molyneux after micro-transactions too.

Peter Molyneux has confirmed Natal support for Fable III and described gaming in 2009 as "the most exciting year ever".

Speaking last night at a BAFTA event - hosted and Tweeted by Eurogamer's Johnny Minkley - Molyneux revealed that his next role-playing game will also feature a micro-transaction in-game shop, where players can buy swords from £1.

Walkthroughs are another possibility for the store, but with the game so far off, Molyneux said many of these features could be dropped before release.

Fable III was unveiled at the German gamescom event in August. The Xbox 360 RPG, due next year, allows players to become king or queen of the land, ruling over it according to their character's morals. It's unsurprisingly ambitious. Head over to our Fable III preview to find out more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (44) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • Moonprince #1 2 years ago

    FFS DO NOT WANT!

  • Moonprince #2 2 years ago

    "game will also feature a micro-transaction in-game shop, where players can buy swords from £1."

    FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU!!!

    WTF is this sht!?

  • asphaltcowboy #3 2 years ago

    He actually said it would be a really interesting design problem as to how you tackle the (inevitable) monetisation of 'cheats'. And that it was something he was interested in looking at. Pretty sure at no point did he say it was definitely something they were working on doing.

  • b00n #4 2 years ago

    It was always going to be supporting NATAL, but I'm quite curious what they can come up. I still think there's a lot of potential with NATAL, also for 'gamer'-games by using a combination of the normal controller and NATAL.

  • Paperghost #5 2 years ago

    From Joystiq:

    "Also mentioned were plans to offer "travel" to new areas of the game world (think Fable 2's DLC destinations) for a fee."

    I'd like to hope this doesn't mean they strip a ton of areas out of what would be the finished game and offer them up for loads of dough but who knows...

  • Raziel #6 2 years ago

    Things I hate in gaming:

    -Forced motion controlls
    -Microtransactions

    Good job there!
    I bet the game will be even easier too this time...

  • paul_haine #7 2 years ago

    "micro-transaction in-game shop, where players can buy swords from £1"

    Too expensive.

  • persus-9 #8 2 years ago

    See this is the problem with micro-transactions, they just aren't living up to the micro part of the name. £1 for a sword, seriously? I bought the whole of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic for £1 and that contained many digital swords. If it were 5p, the sort of money I could spend and not think much about what else I could buy for it, then I might actually buy something but most of these micro-transactions end up costing at least a 20th of a full game. 20 swords or my copy of Borderlands? Sorry Peter but at that price you can keep your damn swords. What's more his is one of the best prices I've seen. Compare it to the clothing in Battlefield Heros and it looks almost cheap.

    Now if the micro-transactions just unlock things that are random drops in the game then I'm happy enough for developers to sell that. Like the "unlock all cars" thing you can buy for Burnout Paradise. When the developers plan not to include content in the vanilla game so they can sell it or make it pre-order exclusive then I start to get a annoyed. I miss the feeling that I've bought a whole game when I've bought a game. I don't want an extra menu devoted to selling me extra things. I don't want to see that so and so is getting such and such extra because they're willing to pre-order. It's a nasty feeling and something I could really do without.

    I'm also really worried about the direction this is going, say this sword thing, I dare say Peter is planning this at a mostly cosmetic optional item but it doesn't have to be that way. I can see a point in the future where the boss fights are virtually unwinable without buying items from the shop. If this way to cheat becomes monetised and socially acceptable then won't developers have a strong incentive to slowly make games almost impossibly hard?

    My final problem with DLC is that the price never seems to go down and to be quite frank it gets a little silly in the end. Burnout Paradise for instance, I bought it for £5 in the recent sale, a bargin to be sure but that's whay I paid. If I want the Big Surf island DLC? That'll be twice the price of the full game please. Sorry what? You expect me to pay £10 for the DLC when I paid £5 for the game? Are you crazy?

    Anyway I know who's to blame for all this, the stupid rich bastards who actually buy the stuff.

  • the_dudefather #9 2 years ago

    Diablo 3 will have like, 17 bajillion swords for about £30

  • bad09 #10 2 years ago

    Micro tranactions, why oh why can't the games industry just make a good game and sell it? You know....like they used to.

    FYI games industry, your greedy need to rape us and the games you make now you have the lovely internet is one of the top reasons I do not buy full price games anymore. One of them.....

  • daymouse #11 2 years ago

    Is this the future of gaming!? Heres your game but you get one sword and one gun anything else you have to pay extra for!

    I dont mind paying extra for new levels etc and the only way i can see this working and people not minding is if for example theres a powerful sword that you receive later on in the game but you can cheat by spending a little extra and get the sword earlier on in the game! Like how Dirt 2 have released the DLC so you can unlock all cars and Livires for a few hundred points! Personally i think this defeats the whole point of playing the game but each to their own!

  • Murton #12 2 years ago

    I sort of agree with Persus' last point on the price of DLC. As games get older they tend to reduce in price (except for Call of Duty which actually went up in price) but this doesn't seem to happen with DLC. There is of course a logical reason for this, physical product has to be moved from shops and warehouses and price reductions do that, digital content is essentially infinite and bandwidth costs are relatively constant so the prices remain the same, barring the occasional limited time special offer.

    For me, the most interesting part of the article is that Molyneux has said that the game is still a long way off and any of these features could be cut before release. Has he finally learned gamers are not stupid and actually do notice when games don't live up to the promises made by their creators during pre-release interviews *cough* Flashpoint *cough*

  • Natversion1 #13 2 years ago

    Hello can of worms, I see you need opening...

    Anyways fine give me the choice to pay £1 for a sword, I won't so no harmt here, so can we have the game for £14.99 if we have to buy it in parts? it's like those magazines where you build something in weekly installments.

  • metalangel #14 2 years ago

    This is after his wildly successful first experiment, Knothole Island, which proved people will spend 400pts or more in a single microtransaction. ;)

  • paulf #15 2 years ago

    he said it would feature a shop, but he didnt say how it would work and used the sword example as a 'what if'.

    He also said it was very important toget it right

  • Xerx3s #16 2 years ago

    1 quid != the micro transactions they promised.

  • Skorms-Boss #17 2 years ago

    buy a game £45
    buy items in game to make game completable £45
    yell at game for stupid motion control £free
    buying a new 360 and t.v as last 360 when thru last t.v due to idiotic morons messing with my gaming experience £sht loads

    Fable was an amazing game and Fable TLC completed the story
    Fable II was a great game the DLC didn't add anything
    Fable III it's looking patchy at best

  • Mkwone #18 2 years ago

    The only time i have a problem with microtranactions is when the product is by far and away the best in the game but can't be unlocked. If it's just an alternative or can be unlocked in game then i'm fine with it.

    I don't buy every car for PGR and i don't buy every song for rockband, but i don't feel as thouh i'm missing out.

    Also Natal support was always inevitable seeing as PM is portayed as the main man pushing the tech. I'm curious to see how it works but the game will live or die by the way it's implemented (or not). If the game needs Natal to be any good then the game won't suceed due to too few people owning the hardware.

  • JetSetWilly #19 2 years ago

    I'd just be happy if Fable 3 was tested properly and not released until it was actually finished.

  • asphaltcowboy #20 2 years ago

    Yeah, listen to paulf! Or indeed me.

  • Ignatius_Cheese #21 2 years ago

    No-one ever listens to you, asphalt... ;oP

  • kinky_mong #22 2 years ago

    I didn't need any more reasons not to buy Fable 3 after the utter stinker that was Fable 2, but gosh darn it doesn't Peter keep giving me more!

  • paulf #23 2 years ago

    @asphaltcowboy

    I'll listen to you, sounds like we were both there though so it's sort of preaching to the converted

  • Les #24 2 years ago

    The game industry isn't making much money since the introduction of HD consoles. Publishers are trying to find new ways to earn money and micro transactions are one example of that.

    And it needn't necessarily be a bad thing, if applied properly. And just bolting it onto the current revenue model doesn't count as 'proper'.

    In the end, gamers benefit from publishers actually making some money, as it will mean games will keep coming their way.

    As for Fable III, I think they're just testing the water with these kinds of remarks and see how far they can get.

  • BigJonno #25 2 years ago

    Please, PLEASE get this right. Fable is exactly the sort of game that I could see myself spending shitloads of money on, IF the items were cheap enough individually. I'm talking less than 50p for an item of clothing or a couple of quid for a whole outfit, something like that. I really don't understand the high prices of a lot of DLC. I'm pretty sure that you'd get more than ten times the sales of swords for 10p as you would swords for a quid.

    Though it's still not as bad as Battlefield Heroes' £20+ for a set of clothes.

  • asphaltcowboy #26 2 years ago

    @Ignatius_Cheese You cheeky bugger (you're absolutely right) :p

    @paulf Yeah, I was there! /actually asked the question about digital distribution that actually spawned this whole business!

  • mcmonkeyplc #27 2 years ago

    Micro should mean less £1!

  • paulf #28 2 years ago

    it's funny as I was sitting there last night I was thinking which bit are eurogamer going to misquote and here we go

  • Les #29 2 years ago

    "think its a wise direction for natal and shows how it can add to more traditional games."

    Am I missing something?! He only says the game will support it (or rather, natal will support the game). That doesn't 'show' anything except for MS's determination to push the technology.

  • Notez #30 2 years ago

    Imagine entering the store for the first time and seeing an out of place credit card reader there, which you have to manually operate by waving your Visa around in the air.

  • The-Bodybuilder #31 2 years ago

    I'd buy that for a dollar.

  • Beano #32 2 years ago

    WAAHH... WAAHH... WAAHH... WAAHH...

    (sound of my internal gimmick-alarm going off)
    Edited by 1 at 22/10/09 @ 12:55

  • space_ace #33 2 years ago

    natal-shmatal. when are they fixing the "clipping" problem in games, basic things like that?

  • Beano #34 2 years ago

    Basic things like clipping doesn't sell - gimmicks does.

  • oldfruit #35 2 years ago

    How boring. Why not introduce unique one-of-a-kind items and sell them through an on-line public auction? Lionhead can take a cut of the profits and we get to see the spectacle of watching the toffs outbid each other to the tune of 000's for a shiny pink sword.

  • kangarootoo #36 2 years ago

    "will also feature a micro-transaction in-game shop, where players can buy swords from £1"

    Worrying stuff.

    If it is cosmetic only, then fair enough. I can choose not to buy.

    If it affects game balance though (the only way to get a more powerful weapon after hours of play to buy it with real money), I would be horrified.

    We shall see. PM has a history of talking about stuff months in advance that never turns up. I guess this is no different to being able to buy new skins or weapons from the XBLM or PSN stores. it just depends how intrusive and/or optional it is.

  • Paulie_P #37 2 years ago

    Me no like. Bad Medicine.

  • davisorle #38 2 years ago

    First of the ones that again are bitching for Natal support on games you DONT need to use it. So quit crying about it and ignore if you dont plan on using it. Its always optional ffs. Stop being so freaking dumb about it making a scene for no reason like a low selfesteem jealous chick with strangers around you.

    About the microtransactions. Peter, Ive backed you up in a lot of your choices and have loved your games but the only way you can count on me for buying your game is by not fucking up so badly and adding that feature. If I never paid for anything more than subscription and preferred to do myself in WoW , what makes you think ill pay even 10cents for a damn sword in the game? It's just kinda messed up if you ask me and specially for a non MMO RPG. Haven't and not willing to do so.

    @Raziel
    Im with u on the second point but when it comes to motion controlling it will never be on the 360, simply cause Natal is optional to everyone, plus the fact they would loose ppl that wont buy it for a loooong ass time till more titles support it. And im glad it will always be optional. Only case it wont be optional it will be for Natal-Specific titles and thats about it.

    @the_dudefather
    I wonder how they +rated your comment when its so irrelevant and pointless what you said.. Really, im amazed like always. It's as if you think that you have to pay for each and every sword in the game since you seem to count only Diablo as a game with free swords in it.. ( When is this damn game gonna come out. Im tired waiting for it )

  • Wolverfrog #39 2 years ago

    Urgh...so the rich will get more out of the game? Screw Fable, I'm going to wait for the next Elder Scrolls. Molyneux is the biggest of British game developers, and he's an arse...hardly paints a good picture does it?

  • zippie151 #40 2 years ago

    unfortunately this the gaming world all over now and it can only get worse. M$ ,and ever increasingly Sony and Nintendo, spearhead most of this DLC bullshit and its not on, i want a full game for my 40 quid, not something thats barely worth 20 and i have to purchase the rest of my 40quids worth. its the cruel fate of capitalism gone wild!!

  • metalangel #41 2 years ago

    @Wolverfrog: Shame on you! You forgot that you're not allowed to say bad things about British game developers. Never mind that Codebastards, Molyneux and Rare (among others) are all coasting along churning out shit on the strength of a reputation they earned over a decade ago and haven't released anything to match the calibre of their heyday - because they're British, they must be great and lavished with praise and admiration.

    I personally will buy 100 pretend swords for Fable 3!

  • Razorus #42 2 years ago

    Oh dear. I hope Natal-usage is not going to be a problem for people who don't want it. I hope I'm not missing out on anything in Fable 3 cos Natal improves the experience. I hope this doesn't become a habit with other developers. I can only hope.

  • Korpers #43 2 years ago

    "game will also feature a micro-transaction in-game shop, where players can buy swords from £1."

    If the retail prince drops to say....£25 - and the rest of the revenue is collected from these micro sales, then fine. If they want a full price release AND charge you for bits and bobs? No fucking chance; this isnt fair. I will eat my amiga populous box and manual.

  • bioreit #44 2 years ago

    @ "Why the massive shift towards paid-for DLC by so many developers?"

    Piracy. Thieving pirating scum who chip their 360/PS3/PSP/DS or just download a PC game torrent file.

    I doubt the piracy problem is as bad as they all claim it to be (as with music and films, I think a lot of people 'pirate' a game they would NEVER purchase, so it's not a lost sale in those cases).

    But I know several people who seem to think it's their right to have for free every single game under the sun - and ironically, one of them is a board game designer who's just had his game stolen and resold in the US, despite having a copyright agreement out there - and he doesn't get it! They all have modded 360s and have never paid for a single game in their lives.

    Paid-for DLC is a way for the developers to either claw back money from these twats, or keep one step ahead of the pirates, as it would take a while to crack and redistribute the DLC.

    I object to the proliferation of DLC, so I keep on badgering and hassling everyone I know who pirates - no effect yet, but Mr Board Game has stopped receiving royalty payments, so when his house gets repossessed, I'm going to be there and laugh my arse off at him and explain that if he carries on pirating games, what happened to him could happen to the games developers.

    Probably won't change anything, but will lift my spirits up!