The Steampunk Fable 4 That Never Was: Molyneux’s Hidden Pitch Revealed
Steam-powered gears, factory smokestacks choking Albion’s magic, and a hero chasing glory in a transformed Victorian world. This Fable 4 only ever existed on paper, but Peter Molyneux still speaks of it with raw emotion.
Back in 2012, right as Peter Molyneux was leaving Lionhead Studios, a pitch document for Fable 4 was making the rounds inside the studio. The concept? Thrust Albion into a steampunk era where Victorian technology began to eclipse magic. And now, as steampunk makes its big comeback in gaming, the saga’s creator revisits this abandoned vision—and shares his thoughts on Playground Games’ reboot.
Image credit: Microsoft Corporation
A steampunk Fable 4 was really in the works
This wasn’t just a designer’s daydream. Peter Molyneux confirmed it this week: a pitch document for Fable 4 did exist at Lionhead Studios. “We had a proposal for Fable 4. And once again, the idea was to push the timeline forward, to go a little further,” he explained. The concept fit perfectly with the saga’s narrative DNA: each game explored a new era of Albion, with technology slowly eating away at magic.
Even when designing the very first Fable, the team was already thinking ahead. “When we were working on Fable 1, we were also thinking about Fable 2. We always had this idea that industry and technology would eventually crush magic,” Molyneux recalled. The original plan was dizzying: to cover 500 years of Albion’s history, right up to the modern age. Fable 4 would have been a pivotal chapter in that epic, the moment when steampunk style—now back in vogue—would have taken center stage. Concept art was even created, showing a Victorian Albion where factory chimneys replaced wizard towers. “It would have been a Fable 4, and it would have been fascinating to make. Focusing on the idea of becoming famous and becoming a hero, but in a world that had changed,” the creator summed up. Here’s what we know about the project that never was:
- A full pitch document, circulated internally at Lionhead Studios
- Concept art depicting a “steampunk Victorian” Albion
- A timeline potentially spanning 500 years of history
- A central theme: the quest for heroism in an industrialized world
The ambition was clear: to show how a fantasy universe could mutate under the weight of progress. It was narrative ground few RPGs had dared to tread back then.
Why this Fable 4 never saw the light of day
The timing couldn’t have been worse. In 2012, Peter Molyneux left Lionhead Studios, first nudged toward the upper echelons of Microsoft Studios, then out the door for good. The Fable 4 pitch had just been submitted. “It was exactly when I was leaving Lionhead, so I never got to see the project fully explored,” he admitted. He never had the chance to champion it in person.
The last Fable game Molyneux worked on was Fable: The Journey, a Kinect rail-shooter released that same year. The franchise was hitting a saturation point: between that and Fable Heroes, a multiplayer beat-’em-up also launched in 2012, the brand was spreading itself thin instead of doubling down. Microsoft then steered Lionhead toward Fable Legends, an asymmetrical multiplayer game that just didn’t fit the series’ DNA. The studio closed its doors in 2016, taking the steampunk dream with it. Fourteen years later, that pitch remains one of the most tantalizing “what ifs” in Western RPG history.
Molyneux’s tears at Playground’s reboot
Asked what he thought of the first gameplay footage from Playground Games’ Fable, Molyneux’s answer is disarmingly honest: “I cried, of course.” The emotion is real. “It made me incredibly proud that we created something that still matters, that people still care about,” he added. Seeing Albion reborn at another studio’s hands, with a level of graphical polish Lionhead could never have matched, clearly strikes a chord with the creator.
Molyneux is generous with his praise, but slips in a gentle jab: “I’d say it looks a bit antiseptically clean—that’s my only tiny negative.” A subtle dig that speaks volumes about his vision for Albion: a world he imagined as rougher, more organic. Playground Games never contacted him during development, which he says he completely understands. “They wanted it to be their own creation. And they seem like wonderful fans.” The reboot, simply titled Fable, is set to launch this fall on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 5. While Playground gets ready to reinvent the saga, Peter Molyneux is preparing Masters of Albion, a god game entering early access on April 22—and it just might be his last video game.
PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
