Fable delayed to 2026: 'We can assure you it'll be worth the wait'

The next Fable game has slipped into 2026, Microsoft has officially confirmed.

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Playground Games will have some extra time to refine their new high-fantasy adventure. In today's Xbox Podcast, Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan announced that Fable will no longer release in 2025, and will instead launch in an undetermined period sometime next year.

Management did not give an exact reason for the delay, but it's possible that the daunting sales-hungry juggernaut that is Grand Theft Auto 6 could have something to do with the delay. GTA 6 is expected to sell in the tune of billions of dollars at launch, and is forecasted to uplift the entire games industry through boosted software, hardware, and services. Publishers are wary of this level of competition.

Tina Amini (host): Where are we at with Fable?

Craig Duncan, Xbox Game Studios head (guest):

"We're really excited about the progress, we're really excited where Playground are. We previously announced the date for Fable as 2025. We are actually going to give Fable more time, and it's going to ship in 2026 now.

"While I know that's not maybe the news people want to hear, what I want is to assure people that it's definitely worth the wait."

Fable is being built from the ground up for Xbox Series hardware, but a next-gen Xbox console is expected sometime in 2028 (although this hasn't been confirmed or officially announced by Microsoft).

It's also unclear as to how, if at all, Microsoft's new Muse generative AI gaming tech fits into Fable's development and/or delay. According to Windows Central, Fable is one of the most expensive projects that's in development at Xbox Game Studios.