Xbox Delays Fable to 2026

Xbox and Playground Games have delayed the upcoming RPG Fable into 2026. When Fable was most recently shown off at last summer’s Xbox Games Showcase, it also came with a broad 2025 launch window. Given that other Xbox games like Avowed, South of Midnight, DOOM: The Dark Ages, and The Outer Worlds 2 were also planned for this year, it seemed like 2025 could end up being one of Xbox’s biggest years ever. And while this might still be the case, Fable will no longer be arriving alongside these other titles.

In a new episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, Craig Duncan, the head of Xbox Game Studios, confirmed that Fable would now be launching in 2026. Duncan said that this delay is simply being done to give Playground Games more time to work on Fable. While he acknowledged that this news might be disappointing to some fans, he firmly believes that pushing the game back will make it far better in the long run.

“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,” 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. And I just, I have unequivocal confidence in the Playground team.”

In many ways, it’s not a shock that Fable is getting pushed back further. For starters, the game isn’t necessarily needed in 2025 given how stacked Xbox’s lineup already is on paper this year. As a result, Xbox can afford to give Playground more time to ensure that Fable will be a hit.

Outside of this, though, the previous instances in which Xbox has shown trailers for Fable have left fans with more questions than answers. To this point, we still haven’t seen live gameplay footage of Fable which has many wondering how the game will even play. Because so little has still been shown, it’s hardly a surprise that it’s now getting bumped into the next calendar year.

Regardless of when Fable does release in 2026, it’s planned to come to Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC platforms. Additionally, since it’s a first-party title from Xbox, it will be joining Xbox Game Pass the moment it arrives. Whether or not it will also come to PS5 on a long enough timeline remains to be seen, but previous rumors have suggested that it will hit PlayStation hardware.