Fable I and Fable II are both coming-of-age stories. While Fable II does certainly have domesticate elements, Fable III is about settling into adulthood and becoming a king. King is the top. What does that leave for the future?
"We have this universe," Fable designer Peter Molyneux tells Kotaku, "and we can expand the world."
Molyneux did not confirm he was working on Fable IV or that there was a Fable IV. But with the success that Fable II saw, Microsoft would be silly not to make Fable IV.
"I remember when you'd get spat on for doing a sequel," adds Molyneux. The veteran game designer began working on titles in the early 1980s. Molyneux often talks freely about things he is thinking about, projects he is working on and stuff he is interested in doing. Sometimes those ideas make their way into games. Sometimes they don't. And when they don't, Molyneux takes the heat for over-promising.
Musicians and film directors often talk loosely — abstractly, even — about things they are interested in doing or projects they would like to pursue. The game industry, however, hangs on every word developers utter.
His latest game, Fable III, is centered around a king, doesn't that mean the series has topped out? Where does one go from being king?
"Well," says Molyneux, "there are kings. And then there are kings." The president of Iceland, he adds, is not the same as being the president of America. Does that mean that in-game Fable world Albion is Iceland? Or is it America?
I follow up and ask him if one day he would like to do another god game. He replies, "Yes." I ask if he thinks Kinect would be a suitable platform for god games to which he replies with a simple "Yes".
"I worry about lactic acid," Molyneux says, adding that you couldn't do a straight up port of something like his mouse-and-keyboard-controlled 2001 title Black & White. About Kinect, Molyneux says, "I would like the player to feel power. You can feel power through more than a control pad."