What you need to know
- Following the announcement of his new game Masters of Albion during Gamescom 2024’s Opening Night Live show, Peter Molyneux has been asked if it’s a Fable game and if it’s in the same universe.
- In an interview that appeared in Video Games Chronicle, Molyneux asserted that Masters of Albion shares a universe with Fable, but isn’t a Fable game.
- Molyneux co-founded Fable’s original developer Lionhead Studios, but left the studio in 2012 a few years before Microsoft shuttered it in 2016. Fable is still a Microsoft property, and a Fable reboot coming out in 2025 is in development at Playground Games. It will be a first-party Xbox and Windows PC exclusive.
- Molyneux claims that because Albion is a historical term for Great Britain, it can’t be copyrighted. However, he’s ultimately unsure if that reasoning will hold up in a legal dispute.
As someone who has spent a considerable amount of time immersed in the world of video games and their intricate legalities, I find myself intrigued by the latest development involving Peter Molyneux’s new game, Masters of Albion.
One of the biggest surprises from the Gamescom 2024 Opening Night Live show was the reveal of Masters of Albion — a new “god game” in which you wield ancient powers from the skies to develop and protect a growing society in a fantasy world. It’s coming from a team of ex-Fable developers led by Peter Molyneux, who co-founded Fable’s original developer Lionhead Studios and served as the lead designer on its three mainline Fable RPG titles released prior to his departure in 2012 and Microsoft’s subsequent closure of the studio in 2016. He went on to create 22cans, which is the developer that’s now building Masters of Albion.
It seems that Masters of Albion shares similarities with the Black & White god game series created by Molyneux and Lionhead, as it’s set in the world of Albion. However, Albion is also the name of the setting for Fable, a game owned by Microsoft. Currently, Playground Games is working on a Fable reboot under the Xbox Game Studios banner, which is expected to release exclusively on Xbox and PC in 2025. Given this information, some are questioning whether Masters of Albion could potentially be a part of the Fable series. If it is, one might wonder about the legalities involved in its creation and release.
These questions were posed to Molyneux in an interview that appeared in Video Games Chronicle, and his answers are pretty interesting. Ultimately, he argues that you can’t copyright Albion because it’s a widely acknowledged historical term for Great Britain. He also asserts that Masters of Albion is indeed set in Fable’s “familiar, vast” world.
In the interview, he analogized it as follows: “If you establish a game in the United States, you can’t create another game there,” he said. “Thus, Albion can’t be copyrighted because it represents England and Wales, which allows us to use it without infringing on anyone’s rights.”
Molyneux elaborated, noting that like Fable, his upcoming game takes place in the land of Albion.
It seems to me this argument appears quite convincing, but please note that I am not a legal professional. Similarly, it’s clear that Molyneux acknowledges his own lack of expertise, as indicated by his uncertainty about whether his reasoning could withstand scrutiny in a court of law.
He admitted, “To tell the truth, I’m not entirely sure… I can only hope I am.” He went on to say, “Given my role, you might expect me to have spent the past half year in law firms, but that hasn’t been the case…”
It’s undeniable that according to 22cans, Masters of Albion takes place in the same world as Fable; however, the development team explicitly states that it should not be regarded as a Fable game.
“Although Masters of Albion isn’t Fable 5 per se, it shares similarities with the Fable series if you’re a fan. One aspect we’ve focused on and are particularly proud of is the humor. In the Fable games, it wasn’t about telling jokes, but rather enabling players to perform absurd and amusing actions. That element is present in abundance in Masters of Albion.”
The trailer for Masters of Albion showed off how you can feed your peasants rat meat pie and equip them with swords made out of bread loaves, so I don’t doubt Molyneux on that front. Still, with the upcoming Fable reboot positioned as one of Microsoft’s biggest and most important Xbox exclusives (and one of the biggest new games headed to Xbox Game Pass), I’m curious to see if the company will challenge 22cans’ use of Albion. Only time will tell.
Regarding the release date of Masters of Albion, it hasn’t been specified yet. However, you can add it to your wishlist on Steam. It remains undetermined if it will also appear on Xbox, PlayStation, and other platforms alongside Windows PC. The fact that Peter Molyneux mentioned returning “home to PC and console” when presenting the game implies there’s a likelihood that it will be.
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2024-08-21 23:09