Xbox Exclusive Fable Has Been Delayed to 2026

The much-anticipated reboot of the Xbox-exclusive Fable franchise has been delayed to 2026. Craig Duncan, the new head of Xbox Game Studios announced the news today in the latest episode of the official Xbox podcast (via Insider Gaming), and the exec had some reassuring words about the game that was first announced in 2020.

“We previously announced Fable as 2025, we are actually going to give Fable more time. It’s going to ship in 2026 now, Duncan said. “While I know that’s not maybe the news people want to hear, what I want to assure people of is that it’s definitely worth the wait.”

Fable is being developed by Playground Games, the developer of the critically acclaimed Forza Horizon series, in cooperation with Eidos-Montréal. The game was last shown at the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2024, which is when its “2025” release date was announced.

“I just have unequivocal confidence in the Playground team,” Duncan said today, adding that the team will deliver “the most beautifully realized version of Albion you’ve ever seen” (Albion is the fictional world where Fable games are set). You can watch the segment below:

While Fable being delayed to 2026 will certainly disappoint fans of the franchise, Microsoft already has at least four other games in the pipeline for 2025, including South of Midnight, Doom: The Dark Ages, The Outer Worlds 2, and Ninja Gaiden 4. As the famous words of wisdom usually attributed to Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto said, “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.”