Fable’s Living Population has impressed and blown the mind of Xbox’s Game Studios head. Check out Playground Games’ new venture into the open-world RPG and their mindset in creating their own living Albion.
Fable Living Population Features 1,000 Handcrafted NPCs
Playground Games’ Relentless Pursuit of Excellence
Fable marks Playground Games’ debut into fantasy-action RPGs, showcasing the studio’s drive to break into new genres, impressing even their fellow developers with their ambition. In an interview with Gaming Bolt on January 26, Xbox Game Studios Head Craig Duncan expressed his excitement about the titles showcased at the Xbox Developer_Direct 2026.
Among the amazing lineup they have for this year, Duncan highlighted Playground Games’ growing portfolio of games. For years, the British video game developer has been known for the popular racing sim series, Forza Horizon.
However, Playground Games is evolving, pivoting from its racing roots to develop its debut whimsical sandbox RPG. "When I think about Playground and their history with the Forza Horizon franchise, and their desire to take on Fable as a franchise, I think it's really about this relentless pursuit of excellence," Duncan stated.
While acknowledging the original Fable trilogy’s distinct identity, he emphasized that this reboot will push boundaries by integrating cutting-edge mechanics. One of the features Duncan highlighted was the Living Population, which features 1,000 handcrafted NPCs with their own lives, routines, and personalities.
"My brain pops every time I think about the Living Population, how it works, and what it adds to the overall game; it's an incredible invention, and Fable is going to be an incredible RPG. It will be amazing to see what players do with it, and it'll be massively shareable. I love when we make things I'm excited to play as a player," he said.
A Living Albion
Although Playground Games has experience creating vast, beautiful open worlds, taking on the storied Fable franchise is a whole different challenge. During an interview with Games Radar+ on January 23, Playground Games General Manager Ralph Fulton detailed how they approached creating their own Albion.
The Fable series is renowned for allowing players to shape their own fairy tale fantasies, which is a core philosophy established by its original creator, Lionhead Studios. Despite having this tried-and-tested format in their hands, Playground Games wanted to put its own twist on the classic franchise.
"It would be inauthentic for us to try and just make Fable 4. We felt we needed to reboot the franchise and put our own stamp on it. This had to be Playground's Fable," Fulton said.
The Returning Landlord System and Fully Voiced NPCs
Even though Playground Games aims to exceed what Lionhead Studios built, specific features that have stuck with the Fable identity will still be present in their upcoming title. This includes the returning landlord system, which allows players to enter any building they want and purchase any house to rent it to Albion’s residents.
"You can buy that house, you can live in it. That was one of those kinds of requirements that we took from the original games, something that people will really want to do. That kind of forms the approach we've taken to world building, to environment building, and this process," Fulton explained.
Another returning priority was the series' famously lively citizenry. For the new Fable, the team is taking this further by providing more reactive, fully voiced NPCs to deepen player immersion.
Fulton noted, "In the original games, you [talked to the NPCs] through gestures. We wanted to do that in fully voiced conversations in this game." The team really wanted the citizens to be persistent and even have their own lives outside of the player.
Daily Routines
Speaking of having their own lives, Fulton even urged fans to try to follow an NPC for a full day. He stated that the people of Albion will have their very own daily routines and will "autonomously do the things that they do every day."
Fulton elaborated, "They'll get up, they'll go to work, they'll have some leisure time, they'll go back to their home, and they'll go to bed." This posed a great challenge for their environment art team, as having 1,000 fully breathing NPCs means giving them their own jobs, houses, and yes, a place to sleep.
When you hear that, certainly as a developer, you start going, 'Oh, okay, so every NPC, and there's more than 1000 of them in the game, needs a bed.' And you have that conversation with the environment art team, and they're like, 'they need what now?' It brings you to a very different way of building a game, because it needs to be functional as well as beautiful," Fulton said.
Relationships and Romance
Beyond simply observing their daily routines, players can actively influence and engage with the citizens of Albion. Fulton emphasized the vital role NPCs play in Fable, particularly regarding how players interact with and integrate them into their personal journeys.
"You can talk to them, you can romance them, you can marry them. You can divorce them or be divorced by them. You can have children with them. You can hire them. You can fire them," he said.
This was one of the features that has set the Fable series apart from other medieval fantasy RPGs, and Fulton honed in on this idea from the very beginning of their development.
"The idea is that you can, in a very gamey sense, get to know [characters]. You will learn the names of people in the settlement, if you spend enough time there, you'll kind of learn the things they like, their personality traits. You learn where they work. You can affect that as well. So there's tons of stuff that we've had to learn and do for the first time, but the experience of doing it has been wonderful," he stated.
Regardless of the daunting task of creating their very first fantasy RPG and carrying the reboot of a beloved franchise, Playground Games looks to establish their own style of Fable while remaining faithful to the essence of the classic British-humoured odyssey.
Fable is set to be released in Fall 2026 on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam. To stay up to date with the latest information about the game, check out our article below!
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