I was 14 when the first Fable made its way onto the original XBox.  I was too early in my life to follow games intently and the internet was not quite the monster it is now, so for me the fated meeting between my teenage pair of eyes and Peter Molyneux’s lies that resulted in a cult favorite product full of heart was browsing the used game section at my local Gamestop.  I’ll pull out my “old” hat out for the internet, but the allure of finding what you feel is a diamond in the rough at a physical game store as you slap in a disc and take a chance on a journey had much more effect than buying another -75% off game on sale that’ll take up space on your harddrive.  I instantly fell in love with the game.  I bought the sequel.  Fell in love with that one too.  Maybe not the ending but that’s fine.  I bought the third (and honestly last) game.  Fell in love with that one too.  Have you ever tried to make Games for Windows Live work nowadays?  Good luck.

It had been nearly a decade when 2020 came along and the XBox Showcase teased the early development of a brand new Fable game.  Reboot?  Sequel?  Remake?  No idea, just there’s a Fable game coming out, and you should be hyped.  And I was!  It stole the show for me, mostly because I can’t remember what else was shown.  But the elation of sitting in a quarantined household thinking of all the good times I had with Lionhead’s creation put me through the roof.  And then we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Fable last week provided another trailer during the newest XBox Showcase, but I’m not the same person hyped to kingdom come on this.  In fact, I’m at a point where I…don’t really care anymore.  Fable is breaking a cardinal rule that game companies are snapping like my ankle last month: what should be a tailored drip of hype and expectation only shows how little companies have to offer, and bringing very little to the table feels worse than nothing at all.

Let’s start with 2020.  I have no problem calling myself a hypocrite here because I definitely said 7 sentences ago that I was hyped as Hell for the announcement.  But when you look back at 2020’s trailer, it provides a mere morsel of information, game tone and potential graphical quality, with a title splash.  End of story.  For a game like Fable, which fans have been clamoring for a full fleshed sequel without the words “Kinect” or “Free-to-Play” attached to it, you’d think 60 second surprise announcements really aren’t necessary.  I mean, The Elder Scrolls VI did this exact same song and dance 5 years ago, and we haven’t seen a damn thing since then.

So alright, we’ve got a double confirmed title with absolutely nothing else attached to it.  Now the waiting game starts.  Normally when titles get an announcement on a grand stage you’ll see at most a 1-2 year wait, with most things premiering for a Holiday or next year release.  Looking at the XBox Showcase this year, 22 games shown are tempering a 2023-2024 release date.  85% of the games shown have the opportunity to be in your hands within 18 months!  There’s plenty here to satisfy our appetites without necessitating the drive for clicks by dangling the carrot.  I can’t in my head think of a time where announcing a title with no release date was in any way beneficial to the studio developing the game.  I can absolutely see how the publishers love this shit since they get to reap the benefits of the social drive, but now eyes are on your product.  You’re on the internet, people are gonna remember this.

So alright, we’ve had 36 months go by without a peep.  Some rumors here and there, but nothing concrete.  But wait, we’re opening this year’s Showcase with a brand new trailer for Fable!  Oh shit here we go!  Well…okay…I recognize that guy…chicken kicking…okay, leaning into the actual fables…annnnd that’s it.  No release date, no plot introductions, and above all: where’s the fucking gameplay?  Demetri and I share a common hatred of this, which is really the main point I want to make here.  Game Trailers are turning into Movie Trailers, and this does nothing to sell your product.  Play the trailer again.  Really dig deep and realize that what you saw provides almost nothing to the state of the game.  You could have told me that Taika Watiti was helming a remake of Shrek and to be honest, I would’ve believed you.

We do get a small line about the Age of Heroes, which was something that the canceled 2016 sequel had planned on headlining, and small call backs to the British wit and chicken kicking that brought the series its mainstay in the gaming community.  Those 3 things account for around 9 seconds of the 2 minute trailer.  From there we get what feels like an introduction to maybe a character we will see in the game (I love you Richard Ayoade, this is not your fault.), and a stand-in main protagonist who is hopefully doing some things we can do in the game.  We get what might be a 20 frame shot of the protagonist jumping through fire with a camera angle that could represent gameplay-like qualities.  And then it ends.  No plot explanation, no graphical charm that the previous games represented (This game did not need the Forza Engine), no release date.  We waited years for what could’ve been mistaken for a potential TV trailer for Fable if it was hosted on Peacock.

And what have we gained from this?  Look at the trailer reactions, but miss me with the misogyny.  People are confused, and rightly annoyed that the carrot has been dangled for 3 years, after a 10 year wait for a mainline sequel, and we have about as much as we came in with.  I’m sure the game will turn around expectations when gameplay and plot are provided, but that’s where this should have started.  Could you imagine the hype and positive reactions if you announced Fable with an understanding of the plot and showed everyone what the overworld could be with pieces of gameplay?  And you told people it was coming out within 18 months?  I would be scrambling to write about something else because these multiple paragraphs would not have ever been needed.

Instead we sit and wait.  At least another 12 months, for the next piece of whatever Fable will be about.  But this industry will never really understand how these empty trailers lower gamers’ expectations and their overall ability to care.  Like someone who just can’t keep a secret a secret, these games will keep getting announced way before the game is ready, and we’ll keep shaking our heads wondering why, knowing we will continue to tap the sign: “No Gameplay, No Hype”.

Sometimes I need to read that sign better.