Lionhead has three more Fables planned

By Tom Bramwell Published 29 July, 2008

Plus, "I really should do a sports game."

Lionhead already has plans for three more Fable games, according to Peter Molyneux.

"We've got plans for Fables 3, 4 and 5 actually," Molyneux told GameTrailers during E3 (thanks vg247).

"It's a big story arc and you can see that - if you play Fable 2 you'll recognise things from Fable 1."

Molyneux also admitted that while Fable 2 is "finished", as he announced during Microsoft's E3 press conference, the team is still squashing bugs.

"When I left the office, we had fixed 45,000 bugs," he said at E3. "We've still got 2,000 bugs yet to finish, but hopefully when I go back it will be 1,750 and next week it will be 1,500."

As for Lionhead's other project, Molyneux managed to bite his tongue. "I can't say anything about it at all," he explained, although he did reiterate that it's "kind of a result of an experiment that went incredibly well".

Looking to the future, the veteran designer mused on other genres he might like to get into. The important thing is to be challenged, he said.

"One day I really should do a sports game, just because it really seems such a genre which is just locked in stone.

"We know how we do sports games. That is a real challenge to me. Same with things like driving games. What I want is for a game I do next is a really big challenge."

To see how he's done with his current challenge, check out our extensive Fable 2 E3 hands-on report and recent interview where Molyneux also hinted that MMOs are very much in his thoughts.

Fable 2 is due out exclusively for Xbox 360 in October.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (42) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • the_dudefather #1 4 years ago

    fable 5: you will be able to plant ENTIRE ORCHARDS

  • Wickerman #2 4 years ago

    "One day I really should do a sports game, just because it really seems such a genre which is just locked in stone.

    Help us Obi-Molyneux, you're our only hope...

    -_-

  • seasidebaz #3 4 years ago

    Coming soon:

    Fable Football.

    A game where you have to sprout your own football team then train them, with grass that grows in real-time.

    Features such as picking the best wife based on traits you want passing down to kids, arguments between all your siblings when they realise you played the field and have many wives, and a mini-game where you make the ball from an actual pigskin by raising and killing the pig.

    It would be MMOFG, with leagues, and tournaments, and other such nonsense.

  • scarabium #4 4 years ago

    As long as every character carries on talking in Brummie and Summmmmmmmerset accents I'm sold '__'

  • space_ace #5 4 years ago

    they should name it "final fable" :)

  • penhalion #6 4 years ago

    This is slowly becoming the western version of final fantasy. Why not simply call it "The Last Fable" and have done with it. That way we will not be even remotely suprised when a new one comes out.

  • InsoFox #7 4 years ago

    3... really? I mean, fable was fun and 2 looks nice and all, but not the kind of nice that needs 3 more games, as far as I can tell. I can't imagine being anything but bored by the time Fable 4 comes around. But we'll see.

  • CapnCloudchaser #8 4 years ago

    I don't think have multiple Fables games is a bad thing. I mean, how many different FF games and spinoffs have we had? Same goes with other RPG series like The Elder Scrolls, Breath of Fire, etc. I'm always excited to see a new updated game in those series, as long as they have evolved a fair bit!

  • Darren #9 4 years ago

    "When I left the office, we had fixed 45,000 bugs," he said at E3. "We've still got 2,000 bugs yet to finish, but hopefully when I go back it will be 1,750 and next week it will be 1,500."

    Weird wording... reads to me like Molyneux is planning on ADDING 2,000 new bugs not removing them! ;) LOL

  • Floppy #10 4 years ago

    All credit to him, he 'did' do a racing game a while back while at Bullfrog. High Octane. A game using the Magic Carpet engine, knocked up and on the shelves in around 8 weeks in order to make that particular EA financial quarter be in the black, rather than in the red. 8 weeks, no mean feat that.

  • patchbox360 #11 4 years ago

    at 9hrs long how hard could making three more be?

  • Darren #12 4 years ago

    Anyway, I'm looking forward to Fable despite not finding the first game anything more than competent. It overpromised on features and so was ultimately a huge disappointment for me but this new game looks more like what the first game was supposed to be but wasn't.

    Talking about doing a third and fourth sequel doesn't fill me with confidence though... I'd rather Fable ended at the third game and Lionhead went on to work on something entirely new and unrelated to Fable. Dunno about anyone else but I get tired of playing sequel after sequel and feel that trilogies are as far as these things should go before developers should move onto something new.

  • Dizzy #13 4 years ago

    >at 9hrs long how hard could making three more be?

    I dunno.. maybe Peter Jackson should quickly whip up some new movies. I mean.. at 3hrs long, how hard can it be?

    Get a job in game dev and then come back to moan.
    Edited by 2 at 29/07/08 @ 10:27

  • miiiguel #14 4 years ago

    Why is this a strange announcement?
    I mean... we'll have Final Fantasy 13 (thirteen)...!

  • Vordred #15 4 years ago

    well they said there would be 5 Black and White games, but doesn't look like thats going to happen

  • Darren #16 4 years ago

    The Final Fantasy games are all unique and have nothing to do with one another bar the currency used (Gils) and Chocobos in every game. Fable 2 looks to me to be a refined remake of the previous games with near identical art work so it doesn't really look like a reinvention of the series anymore than Forza Motorsport 2 or Halo 3 were.

  • miiiguel #17 4 years ago

    ^ you should tell us more about the game... played much ? ;)

    If the Final Fantasy games have all distinct art work... I must be blind. They look like all spiky-hair kids games like every Japanese game looks like (not only FF).
    Edited by 3 at 29/07/08 @ 10:38

  • patchbox360 #18 4 years ago

    @ Dizzy

    any rpg that is the same length as gears of war is lacking something

  • JediMasterMalik #19 4 years ago

    Sounds like overkill.

  • Darren #20 4 years ago

    I said Fable 2 looks to be a remake of the first game from the videos I've seen, I never said I'd played it! :p

    As for Final Fantasy, you clearly haven't played many of the games because FFIX was a fantasy-inspired games that was totally different from FFVIII which itself was different from the classic FFVII. Not only is the art work, story and characters totally different but so are the gameplay mechanics. For example, FFXI is an MMORPG and FFXII did away with random battles completely. Sure they're all Japanese flavoured RPGs but they do feel distinct from one another (those I've played anyway) such that the Final Fantasy name itself is misleading.

  • seasidebaz #21 4 years ago

    @Darren:

    You forgot to mention Cid, who's also in every FF game ;)

  • Pulsar_t #22 4 years ago

    This person is so overrated it's not funny. And who cares about sports titles other than their respective fans who diligently buy EA's games?

  • Moz #23 4 years ago

    Just hope that Fable 3 is planned for this gen using the same GFX engine as Fable 2 otherwise we'll all be drawing our pentions by the time the 5th game comes out.

    But hopefully with this and other games/engines that this gen is the back braker and that everything may scale from this point and bring dev times down abit!

  • Darren #24 4 years ago

    @farticusmaximus - Jesus how many more times do I have to say this... I said Fable 2 *LOOKS* like more of the same from the video footage I *HAVE* seen! That's merely an observation not fact!!! Graphically it's very, very similar despite the fact it is set 500 years later.

    However, knowing how similar Peter Molyneux's sequels tend to be having played most of the games he's been involved with since my Amiga days, I'm confident that this will be a very similar experience to the Xbox original only improved where it needs to be. Note that I'm not citing this as a negative since I felt the original game was lacking in many areas and some of those look to have been addressed in this sequel, e.g. you can now have kids, you have a dog companion (a lovely touch I think), you can play co-op with others at any time, the world is supposedly much larger, you can now choose to play as a girl if you want, etc., etc. All promising stuff. As I said earlier I'm really looking forward to this game as I think it'll finally deliver the vision that Molyneux promised for the Xbox version but failed to deliver. :)

  • miiiguel #25 4 years ago

    @Darren:
    I don't know if you noticed but you said FFVII (seven)..., even if they started to be something diferent when it reached 7 or 11 (which is a MMO), there were already plenty of.
    Anyway, I just find it funny why, in general, gamers are so indulgent to some sacred cows and harsh to new comers.
    Edited by 1 at 29/07/08 @ 11:15

  • patchbox360 #26 4 years ago

    @ fart

    im considering the 9 hrs of mainplot being low not 51 hrs of minigames Mr Jackass.

  • Raz76 #27 4 years ago

    This is the most comprehensive video I have seen of Fable 2 yet:

    [link url=http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/ob jects/741361/fable-2/videos/fable2livewire_072308.html ]http://xb ox360.ign.com/dor/objects/74136...[/link]

    and I must say it looks quite promising. It's like they took every feature from the first game and expanded them wildly. We'll have to see about the story though.

  • miiiguel #28 4 years ago

    I find the complains about a "main plot" (whatever that means) being short so silly. The diference betwwen interactive entertainment and non-interactive (movies) is that I do my own pace, not the devs, and not the forumites, that's for sure.

    I finished Oblivion in 150 hours, Mass Effect 1st in 60, 2nd in 30. So why this "9 hours", thing ? Do you play it like a racing game, or something ?
    Edited by 1 at 29/07/08 @ 11:38

  • Inquisitor #29 4 years ago

    I really wish they'd done something with that potal experimental video they showed years ago. In some ways an interesting precursor to Valves portal but it did a lot of things differently that I really liked.

    For example going through some portals would increase or decrease the size of objects, a bit like some of the portals in Prey. Hopefully they've taken the experiment a bit further and done enough to make it a full game.

    Anyway, it's quite nice to hear they've got plenty of Fabel sequels lined up but I bet they'll be bored of it by the time they actually come to making them.

  • Darren #30 4 years ago

    miiigue - "@Darren:
    I don't know if you noticed but you said FFVII (seven)..., even if they started to be something diferent when it reached 7 or 11 (which is a MMO), there were already plenty of."

    You're a persistent bugger aren't you? LOL

    I can't comment on the earlier Final Fantasies directly because I've only played the series since FFVII. However I understand that the earlier games were also self-contained, each having their own story, characters and setting.

  • miiiguel #31 4 years ago

    Well, this guy is a self-hype machine. He must save thousands of dollars, as he alone do the marketing of his own products.

  • patchbox360 #32 4 years ago

    'I find the complains about a "main plot" (whatever that means)'

    the parts that don't involve meeting random people doing pointless 'find something for me', kill this person for me' task

    in fable2 you can get married and have children - will your wife or children bare any consequence to what happens in the plot (probably not), will your son/daughter when they grows old join you on your mission, build a relationship with you, die, become your enemy, do anything interesting (probably not)

    until side quest or minigames etc have a significant impact on the mainplot or have an interesting twist i will be treating them as nonsense (but you are free to do what you want)

  • miiiguel #33 4 years ago

    "the parts that don't involve meeting random people doing pointless 'find something for me', kill this person for me' task"
    For me, everything matters. The whole package.

    What I don't understand what is the "main plot". Take real life as an analogy, you go to work, to work..., but lunch time, although rather pointless is actualy very nice.

  • Dizzy #34 4 years ago

    "until side quest or minigames etc have a significant impact on the mainplot or have an interesting twist i will be treating them as nonsense (but you are free to do what you want) "

    Until you have a significant impact on this thread I will also be treating you like nonsense.

    The core game idea of WRPGs is optional sidequests. Go play a JRPG if you want 10000 hours of grinding.
    Edited by 1 at 29/07/08 @ 12:19

  • bonker #35 4 years ago

    They're fixing *50* bugs per day - how many guys are working on this thing??!!

  • sneetch #36 4 years ago

    @patchbox360

    9 hours? Where'd you get that number? In the article I read the devs said 14 and they said that was racing through the game, just on the main story quests knowing where you're going at all times. I'm looking forward to this, I'm glad I know the length of the main story before I get into it; I'll savour every minute now, no rush.

  • sneetch #37 4 years ago

    @bonker

    That depends on what Lionhead consider a bug, often bug systems are used to contain tweaks and enhancements, trivial bugs and the big ones. "Typo in quest title Quest 'Yearrr'", "Alignment problems with textures on model X" or "One handed swords do too much damage" could be considered bugs just like "The game crashes whenever you look left". Granted they're less severe bugs but still bugs.

    I worked with one guy who was the worst speller (or possibly typist) that I've ever seen, he fixed about 80 spelling "bugs" in about 2 weeks. He then installed a spell checker for his IDE.

  • the_mtfr #38 4 years ago

    Molyneux looks arrogant. He says so easily "I'll do a [..] game", he talks from his place up high on the mountain, not thinking really about the army of talented guys who crunch his bullshit ideas (get married! wow! now this game looks like f-ing Sims) into playable concepts. I'd like to see him get up and do some programming and shutting his mouth for a change.

    He should take Sid Meier as a role model ;)

  • Dizzy #39 4 years ago

    >I'd like to see him get up and do some programming and shutting his mouth for a change.

    Errr.. he did a lot of that in the past.

  • Liggur #40 4 years ago

    I`d like him to do Syndicate Wars360, not a sports game.

  • WJF #41 4 years ago

    Can't. EA has the Syndicate franchise lock, stock and barrel.

    Of course he could come out with something called 'Decay Isn't' which features the trench-coat wearing, mini-gun toting 'As Gent' who are controlled via a isometric viewpoint by a 'Parley'

    /hugs anagram creator

  • subtlesnake #42 4 years ago

    "the parts that don't involve meeting random people doing pointless 'find something for me', kill this person for me' task "

    Well, isn't that exactly what the 'main plot' will likely consist of? The main plot in RPGs typically just unifies a series of individual quests which could easily be sidequests in their own right. I mean some of the most interesting quests in Oblivion for example, occured outside of the main storyline

    "in fable2 you can get married and have children - will your wife or children bare any consequence to what happens in the plot (probably not),"

    Actually Molyneux has specifically said that if you have a familly they'll involve that familly in the main story, and they'll be in for a 'rocky ride'.

    "until side quest or minigames etc have a significant impact on the mainplot or have an interesting twist i will be treating them as nonsense (but you are free to do what you want)"

    Your original claim was that the game itself shouldn't have taken a lot of time/effort to produce: "9hrs long how hard could making three more be?" which I don't see you defending.