Fable due this year

Lionhead "Community Pet" Sam Vantilburgh has penned a heartfelt update as the first diary entry at The Lionhead Times, commenting on the progress of various projects in and around Lionhead Studios and Big Blue Box based on his experiences in the three months he's been there.

"I've been playing Fable ... and have been involved with different aspects of the development cycle. I also had a brief presentation of B.C. and Jonty Barnes showed me a very nice and playable version of Black & White 2. Other projects I was introduced to included The Movies but no sign whatsoever yet about DIMITRI and Unity."

Sam then goes on to talk in some depth about the state of Fable, stating "Fable will be the first game from Lionhead to be released this year" (his emphasis), "and the 'Press Beast' is getting started, which means we are getting closer to finalising this game." Roar. "By no means should you expect this game to come out before May 2004 though, it will be afte that for sure."

Sadly, all the speculation and excitement seems to be taking its toll on Sam, who subsequently reels off a list of examples of people bothering him with release date questions "at least fifty times a day". "Even cab drivers from Guildford (where Lionhead Studios [not to mention Eurogamer's own Shinji] is located) ask me for it, managers and employees from other companies ask me on a side note while talking to them on the phone, press, fans and industry people keep sending me mails, private messages or even letters (not really letters) to get some sort of clue."

"Sadly enough, I don't know an exact release date myself, all I hear is an estimated time of release (somewhere this year; 2004), schedules to meet (milestones everywhere!) and a lot of speculation from a million websites, magazines and people. It is absolute insanity and idiocy! I'd rather prefer to eat my shoe if that would mean no one would ask me this silly question ever again." Lionhead probably wasn't the best place to go work then, eh?