For quite a while now, rumors have been going around about a sequel to Lionhead’s famous fantasy role-playing game franchise Fable. Back on June 27th, Tom Warren, a journalist at verge, commented on Twitter about two social new social media accounts called @fable and @PerfectDarkGame which were registered earlier this year. While Aaron Greenberg of Xbox Marketing tried to imply that there is no significance to these accounts, stating that “it’s standard practice to secure social handles for our IP.”, trademark application seems to imply otherwise.
According to the trademark application, which was filed back on June 26th, while the Filed Use and Current Use are marked with a ‘No’, the Intent To Use is marked with a ‘Yes’. This seems to imply that Microsoft does have a plan to use the Fable IP for a new game.
This can be supported by a Eurogamer report back in 2018 which stated that a new project that is likely a new Fable game is being developed by the UK developer Playground. One of the article’s sources was former Lionhead co-creator who stated that “Fable is a weird game, and a tough one to deconstruct for a new team. That said, the team in question is very talented, and I’m sure they’ll do a fantastic job.” This statement does seem to solidify the rumors, however, Microsoft has yet to announce anything, but it is possible that this new project will be announced in the July Showcase. Unfortunately, there is no more information available regarding whatever the Intent To Use could signify, but it is likely that more information will be revealed at a later date.