Marriage announcement outs Fable III?

By Tom Bramwell Published 30 June, 2009

This is getting a bit silly now.

Microsoft may not be talking about it and Peter Molyneux may be trying ever so hard not to talk about it, but people just keep talking about Fable III. Now it's the New York Times, in a wedding announcement of all things.

"Amy E. Gilbert and Joshua Samuels Atkins are to be married Sunday in San Francisco. Rabbi Bruce Greenbaum is to officiate in the Penthouse of the Fairmont Hotel," the announcement says (thanks Kotaku). "Mr. Atkins, 34, is the lead game designer for Fable III, a videogame series produced by Lionhead Studios in Guildford, England." Whoops.

Atkins, who appears to have worked largely for Microsoft Game Studios rather than Lionhead itself, is credited on Fable: The Lost Chapters and Fable II among numerous other games.

Previous non-announcement announcements of Fable III include Jonathan Ross famously twittering about it after the BAFTAs, which Lionhead king Peter Molyneux explained away by pointing out that the developers were drunk and "had Jonathan Ross literally pinned up against a wall, going, 'Go on, do a voiceover, do a voiceover, do a voiceover...'"

"He then assumed it was for Fable III, but it could have been a voiceover for any of the Fable things we've got planned," he clarified.

Whether the NYT thing is a misprint or this is more proof, we presumably won't find out until much later in the day. In the meantime, we'll return you to something else from that Peter Molyneux interview at GDC:

"If I was talking about Fable III - I would hope there would be three enormously big things about the Fable III that would surprise and shock you. Not that I am talking about Fable III. Hypothetically speaking."

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.

You may also like...

Comments (28) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • Pirotic #1 3 years ago

    I don't think they are trying to keep it a secret, I just get the impression they are waiting until they have something to show before they officially announce it. The DLC makes it clear there will be a third, and I'd be very surprised if that Milo tech-demo isn't in someway already integrated with it.

  • AphoticCosmos #2 3 years ago

    I wouldn't be surprised if Molyneux drives his overhyped gravy-train to a third instalment.

  • cyacomini #3 3 years ago

    Fable overhyped? Sure...

    Fable II overhyped? Not in a gazillion years - for once, the final product actually jutified the hype

  • thenastypasty #4 3 years ago

    I think we will see a big piece of DLC for fable 2 before anything is annouced about fable3,I think it will be 2/3 years before we see the game at retail.

  • chukcyQ #5 3 years ago

    Not interested in marriages, just tell me about the games.

  • TruSmiles #6 3 years ago

    They should have had a Fable 2 co-op game during the marriage :D And then make Fable babies!

  • jonsaan #7 3 years ago

    Who would have thought it eh?

  • miiiguel #8 3 years ago

    Funny article :)

  • kangarootoo #9 3 years ago

    Fable 3... in our lifetimes.... how extremely unexpected.... well, not really.


    Anyway, regardless of whether PM is interesting to listen to or not, Fable 1 and 2 were both rather good games in my book. I enjoyed them a lot, and look forward to the 3rd. People should remember that PM doesn't really do that much these days, and the sucess of Fable 2 is a result of a talented team of devs "behind the scenes".

  • Heitzu #10 3 years ago

    Of course it could just be a misprint, it's fairly easy to accidently press the same key twice.

  • Spekingur #11 3 years ago

    If there's going to be a Fable 3 then I would want to see a game where multiplayer isn't so constrained as it is with the second one.

  • metalangel #12 3 years ago

    Perhaps they should spend less time on stupid hype and rumour-spinning and more on making the game less of a crushing disappointment!

  • miiiguel #13 3 years ago

    @ metal: don't be bitter man, this had nothing to do with hype, this was actually funny in a inocent kinda way.

  • WinterSnowblind #14 3 years ago

    Again, people need to stop claiming Fable 2 was over hyped. Unlike the first game, Molyneux didn't talk about it a whole lot and whenever they did announce new features, they were always demonstrated in game. INCLUDING the co-op. If you felt it was disappointing or overhyped, then that's your own fault. There were definitely aspects of the game that could be vastly improved, but none of them were over hyped.

    And yes, I'm fairly sure he's already told us Fable 3 is coming. The 'See the Future' DLC directly builds into it.

  • kinky_mong #15 3 years ago

    Are we not allowed to say Fable 2 was overhyped? Fine, Fable 2 was incredibly underwhelming.

    And the buggy POS caused my 360 to get the E74 error.

  • miiiguel #16 3 years ago

    "And the buggy POS caused my 360 to get the E74 error. "
    I think you're into something really big! A piece of software that causes an HW failure? That's a first.

  • BigJonno #17 3 years ago

    I'm concerned that the valiant attempt not to talk about stuff until it's actually ready to show is going to cause Peter to explode. Literally.

  • Darren #18 3 years ago

    Fable II was good but nothing more; a decent improvement on the original but it was still ultimately a bit of a letdown in many ways and was a lot less revolutionary than I was led to believe. The dog for example was nothing like as fun to have as those early videos suggested it would be nor as useful and the game world still felt like a collection of "rooms" separated by corridors and loading screens much like the original. It didn't quite have the epicness I was expecting from the previews but I enjoyed it while it lasted.

    Not so sure I'm that excited about a third game unless it's on new, more powerful hardware that can do the series justice.

  • finty13 #19 3 years ago

    I have to agree with some of the above posters that Fable II was underwhelming to say the least.

    From what I'd read from previews, I was expecting an epic adventure on par with the likes of oblivion, but what I got was an incredibly linear game which was over way too soon.

  • cyacomini #20 3 years ago

    for those who claim Fable II was a crushing disappointment - show us your gamertags so we can see how much of it you actually played.

    I'm 'Bleem' for anyone who wants to look - I'm showing 1275/1350 Gamerpoints

  • cyacomini #21 3 years ago

    Notice WinterSnowblind has 1350/1350 - well done squire!

    I still need to get the bloody Doll Catcher!

  • Slipstream #22 3 years ago

    If it was typed as the roman numural III, then it could simply be a typo, or as it's a newspaper, just their general lack of knowledge toward anything gaming.

  • kinky_mong #23 3 years ago

    @cyacomini: 1250/1350. Everything except Knothole Island's achievements so I think I can fairly judge the game as underwhelming seeing as getting that many points felt like a chore most of the time.

    @miiiguel: There's a massive thread in the forum on this very site with anecdotal evidence of Fable 2 breaking 360's. It can't have escaped your attention that the game causes the disc drive and fan to work overtime on the console, which only exacerbates the inherent problems of the machine.

  • lambtron #24 3 years ago

    I'm not sure why anyone was expecting Fable 2 to be revolutionary - as far as I'm aware it was never billed as such. It was good fun and the dog was cool. Hell, even the missus likes it and it has started playing it. I can't say THAT about many other games.

  • superdelphinus #25 3 years ago

    i seem to be the only person on the planet that thought that fable 2 was way way too linear and, dare i say it, boring
    Edited by 1 at 30/06/09 @ 17:47

  • metalangel #26 3 years ago

    @cyacomini: Suicide Perkies, 1100/1100 (I don't have See The Future). I really gave the game a chance, I even went out and bought a big hard drive specifically so I could play it at its best without loading delays.

  • GreatUncleBaal #27 3 years ago

    Perhaps Fable III will use Project Natal technology for all the gestures etc - then I'd have a reason to fist pumps and pelvic thrusts towards my TV screen. I've said too much...

  • deli2000 #28 3 years ago

    Look. anyone who thought fable 2 was overly hyped. you clearly haven't paid attention to the article. this is JUST about a misprint in a newspaper that may or may not confirm fable 3.

    there probably wont be fable 3 in a long time so i am sure this is only a misprint