Microsoft seems to be going all-in on fantasy RPGs. The Fable reboot in the hands of Playground Games was one of the July 2020 Xbox Games Showcase's biggest announcements, bringing a classic RPG series back to life with the help of Microsoft's new next-gen console. At the same time, Microsoft is now involved in The Elder Scrolls 6 thanks to its acquisition of RPG giant Bethesda. Instead of these games competing in-house, Xbox head Phil Spencer says that The Elder Scrolls 6 won't release until well after Fable, giving each game its own release date. The Elder Scrolls 6 isn't the only Xbox game Fable needs to think about, though—there's also Avowed.
Avowed was one of the first games Obsidian Entertainment announced after it joined the Xbox Game Studios team. It's a new take on the world of Pillars of Eternity, one of Obsidian's dearly beloved RPG series. Although Avowed promises to be fairly different from Fable, one still wonders if the two games are on something of a collision course. Phil Spencer's comments on Fable's release relative to The Elder Scrolls 6 are good to keep in mind, but Microsoft has to account for Avowed too. Either Fable or Avowed ought to come out well before the other, just like how TES6 is making space for Fable.
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There's a chance that Avowed will beat Fable to the punch. For one thing, even though Fable and Avowed were announced at around the same time, some signs suggest that Fable is farther behind. Playground Games keeps hiring people for Fable, like one of Control's writers, to put the game together. If Playground is still assembling the team necessary to make Fable while Obsidian keeps working on Avowed with its usual team, then Avowed might come out first. Obsidian could release it in the first half of 2023, meaning Fable would have to wait for the second of the year.
On the other hand, Fable has a few significant advantages over Avowed. For one thing, Obsidian Entertainment is working on a lot of big games right now between Avowed, Grounded, and The Outer Worlds 2. The pressure on the studio could make Obsidian slow down development on Avowed while Fable progresses toward a more timely release. For another thing, The Elder Scrolls 6's release window after Fable could mean Microsoft plans to let Avowed come out afterward too. The Elder Scrolls 6 is a huge game for the Xbox. If it's willing to prioritize Fable over such an important game, then it might want to prioritize Fable over Avowed too.
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All of this boils down to where Microsoft's priorities lie. Information about Fable and Avowed is too scarce overall to say how different these two games are, so for now, fans have to assume that they're largely designed for the same broad audience of fantasy RPG fans. That means Microsoft has to space out its release dates as carefully as it's doing with Fable and The Elder Scrolls 6. If Fable establishes a whimsical, nostalgic aesthetic while Avowed leans more heavily into its trailer's dark imagery, then the two games might be able to coexist peacefully. For now, though, nothing is certain
For now, one wonders if Phil Spencer's comments on Fable and The Elder Scrolls 6 say anything for Fable's potential release window. If Microsoft has some sort of schedule to release these RPGs in mind, then it at least inspires some confidence that Fable's early development is going well. Spencer does make it clear that Avowed will be out before Elder Scrolls 6 too, so Avowed's development is hopefully going smoothly too. There's no sign that either of these games will be out anytime soon, but one hopes they're on track for 2023 releases at the very latest. Between Fable, Avowed, The Elder Scrolls 6, and everything else being developed under Microsoft's watchful eye, the latter years of the Xbox Series X won't be short on games.
Fable and Avowed are in development for PC and Xbox Series X.
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