Fable II 'Episodic' revealed, pay-as-you-play starts Sept. 29 [update]

by Alexander Sliwinski on Aug 19th 2009 4:35AM

Peter Molyneux announced, during the Lionhead press conference at GamesCom, that Fable II episodic adventures are on the way. The first chapter is free. Once players get to the ending they can opt to buy the next chapter or buy the rest of the game. The purchase takes place in-game and there are five episodes.

The first episode will release on September 29 and no prices have been revealed. The game is fully compatible with Knothole Island and See the Future. We'll keep working on getting more information.

Update: Microsoft has clarified that this is not an extension of Fable II, but rather the retail game broken up into serialized chapters formally titled Fable II: Game Episodes. Xbox Live users will be able to download the initial episode, which serves as a "shell" for the rest of the game, on September 29.

The original game disc is not required to play, and those who grab part one will have the option to purchase subsequent pieces or the entirety of Fable II (think of it like an XBLA trial). If you've downloaded any of the game episodes and decide to spring for the retail disc, your saves will carry over. No per-episode pricing has been announced but we're chasing more details.

Tags: Action, fable-2, fable-2-episodic, gamescom, gamescom-2009, lionhead, Lionhead-Studios, MGS, Microsoft, Microsoft-Game-Studios, rpg, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (39)

I was just about to trade in my fable 2...

I thought they said it was an episodic re-release of Fable II?

I think it is. Basically, it's a game-on-demand but they broke it into five pieces.

COME ON MICROSOFT. i was just reading kotaku live blog and all they announced is Fable stuffs. where's some crackdown 2///

Voted down for reading Kotaku?

Really? It's not like Joystiq had a liveblog or anything. :/

I suppose this'll give me reason to play it again.

I'm afraid that if I put the game in, I'll be so rich that I can buy anything.

I second that. It's been months since I last played Fable II, and I already had a lot of real estate.

Your character must be maxed out by now too...

I'm pretty sure this is just a re-release of Fable 2, that's how I understood it anyway. I do hope it's actually new adventures.

wow that's really redundant

Why not just put it up on Games on Demand, oh you know the new service they just added?! WTF is the point of this episodic BS.

Money.

I mean, games are expensive, but not THAT expensive. If you really want a taste of Fable 2 without buying a fresh new copy you can rent it, borrow it from a friend, find a gamestore that lets you try games in the store (I think Gamecrazy does this, so do lots of local small business game stores), or in a worse case scenario buy it used. Not to mention that Fable 2 was a pretty well known game, and most people that were interested probably already bought it and if they havent, are just waiting for the retail disk to get cheap.

I cannot possibly imagine who the target audience for this is.

(another doublepost by me) Fable 2 is only $40 new at gamestop now

Same target audience as the games on demand audience. The convenience shopper that would rather not leave the couch, and doesn't mind paying above current market price.

I almost bought the first Fable for that reason off xbox live...

So this is essentially a (free) demo of the game, that you can keep game saves for so that if you decide to actually buy the game you don't need to do the beginning all over again. For people who have never played Fable II (like me) this is a great idea - it'll give me an idea if I'll enjoy it enough to spend 40+ hours on it. That's who the target audience is, people that were interested in it, but not enough to actually buy it.

Agreed. I have already played Fable II so I am not going to pick it up, but for a game like Fallout 3 which I never tried due to my not enjoying Oblivion. Or a game like Assassin's Creed which I never tried, but I am interested in trying.

"it'll give me an idea if I'll enjoy it enough to spend 40+ hours on it" you really haven't played fable II have you...

let me put it to you this way...its shorter than fable 1 and that was about 20 hrs worth of gameplay (if you took your damn time)

I don't like this at all, as it's heading down a dangerous path. Once you buy the first part or two, you become the slave of MS. They can charge whatever they want for the rest of the episodes, and unless you're content with having an incomplete game (which would mean whatever you've spent so far would be a waste), you're gonna buy the rest no matter the price.

Really hope this doesn't become a trend, let's just stick to regular practices.

I can only imagine they'll cap the total price at $60 Like a normal retail game.

Episodic content isn't a new thing. I can't imagine they would charge different prices for each "episode", especially when it sounds like all of the episodes will be available from the get-go.

I didn't consider that point. A very scary concept when you consider Microsoft's ability to monetize anything

This is MS's experiment, and it's an already released game so there shouldn't be any ridiculous price gouging and it should all be available at once. But down the road if this becomes used more by MS for games that aren't out, and with their ability to screw people over (most of their games that are on marketplace, whether it's arcade or games on demand are overpriced) they could easily pull something that bad.

Umm, I already maxed out my character hrs before the half-way mark of fable 2. If there's no "level" increase or something like new moves or upgrades to purchase with the gagillions of expierence points I have, what's the point? It's not like the story is epic by any means.

That's why fable 2 was so lost on me. It's no fun doing all these cool combos to gain as much expierence as possible, hoping to tailor my character towrds magic or strength etc. Then not even half way thru you accumulate more then enough expierence to just purchase every upgrade available. So dumb.
Ugh and I'm sure I'm the rich beyond my wildest dreams after not playing for months.. So great I can then it on today and buy every house, store, shop in the game.

Weird, I've played all the way through the game and probably can't even afford half of the XP based upgrades.

Wow, you are either terrible at games and comboing moves together or didn't complete any side missions. Epic failure..?

I also had every upgrade a little bit after I saved the Hero of Will. I did every single sidequest, have every achievement, and ran around a lot though. I played the hell out of Fable II. Great game.

"Microsoft has clarified that this is not an extension of Fable II, but rather the retail game broken up into serialized chapters formally titled Fable II: Game Episodes."

after re-reading this, I'm confused.. So this is the same old Fable2 as the retail disc, just broken up in chunks I guess?

What about achievement points, are you going to be able to get those again, seems weird, and, can you get a bulk of cheevos if any with this free trial episode. I think its cool, im just wondering.

Also, clearly there was no mention of a cheaper hard drive then eh.

Ohh good question.

I wonder if you can get the 1st free episode then join someone else's game as his henchman who owns the full product and watch him get all the achievements.

That would be pretty nice, knowing them i think they would do that.

I was hoping this was MORE DLC for Fable II. But they're actually trying out a different way of giving people the chance to buy games digitally..... piece by piece!.... I wonder if it will work!

lame. I'm going to bet that it'd be cheaper and easier just to RENT the damn game then pay per episode. other than that, isn't this basically a demo (1st episode)?

besides, I've already beaten the game. where's Fable 3?

So basically, the "chapters" are the missions of the story? Does the "main shell" have all of the towns, world, etc? Because the beauty of the game is running around, customizing, buying property, etc. Not the story missions, per say.

Are gamers about to receive a free "Fable II World" without the story missions?

Am I the only one confused by this? It sounds like it is pretty much just a re-release of Fable II, but in episodes.

This is pointless seeing as you could buy a weeks rental for ~£5 and complete it in that time.

While I don't like the idea of this for myself, I can't say it's pointless. Many people have other things to fill time and so renting a game they only get through a little bit before they have to return it. I know that happens to me each time I rent a game. I say I can get through it in 5 days and than after day one I have too much to do in the week to get anywhere in the game. So, here they could buy it in parts as they are ready for it.

man, you got me all excited for new content :(

I myself am very disappointed. I THOUGHT that this would be a new way to experience fable 2. I was imagining being the young sparrow and getting into mischief as a lad, gaining good and evil points (gaining these points adding to your personality) before your grew up to avenge you sister's death.

However it seems that all of this HOOPLA over something coming from Lionhead on September 29th is merely the part of Fable 2 where you spend probably the dullest moments of the whole game collecting warrants and all that nonsense.

How anti-climaxtic!!!!! At least bring the damn fist fighting back and the fight club. Hire someone that actually is passionate about holding TRUE to the greatness of the Original Fable and ADDING to it without TAKING AWAY the things that we enjoyed from Fable.

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Fable II 'Episodic' revealed, pay-as-you-play starts Sept. 29 [update]

Reader Comments (39)

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