While it's certainly welcomed news to hear Lionhead Studios confirm that Fable III is coming out next year, the more surprising news is that Lionhead also announced that it will releasing its acclaimed RPG Fable II via episodic downloads over Xbox Live starting September 29th.
Fable II: Episodes will consist of five downloadable chapters, each of which will contain a particular chunk of the full game. It includes all of the achievements and content found in the retail game, plus all the additional content from the DLC packs Knothole Island and See the Future.
General manager of Microsoft Game Studios, Phil Spencer, said in a statement:
“With the launch of Games on Demand on Xbox LIVE, we have a great tool in place to deliver classic titles in an incredibly convenient fashion...With the Fable II episodic model, we’re encouraging people to experience the first chapter of the game for free, then move onto other chapters when they are ready. It’s a unique model and one that will appeal to gamers who’ve been hesitant to dive full into the original retail release.”
And should you decide to purchase the retail disc after playing through a few chapters, not to worry. Your character will be carried over, meaning you won't have to start from scratch. Aside from the first episode, which is free, Lionhead has not revealed how much each episode will cost, how much content will be available in each one, or how often the episodes will be released. But seeing as they start rolling out next month, it shouldn't be too much longer before more details are revealed.
Anyone thinking about checking out Fable II via episodic downloads?
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eickley
I would hope it is not much money. I do think it is a good idea for those of us who want to keep our game dics from getting messed up in the long run.
blasphemous
oh xplay must be lovin this!!!
Drop_Six
Fable 2 doesn't offer enough length to be cut up into 5 episodes. The game only lasts like 30 hours max and thats like 6 hours an episode. Its just not enough. Gamers need to get at least 10 hours out of each episode. Not to mention the pricing issue. If they're going to announce something like this they need to tell us what they are going to charge for it. Although if its 5 episodes they are probably going to sell it for $10 to $15 (800 to 1200 ms points) per episode, which is just too much for the game. It was a good game, but not $50 good.
RavenX
Why not just offer the full game for download on Games On Demand?
Completist
I wonder if I download it, I won't be able to progress past the warehouse part in childhood. Seriously, I don't know what the hell is wrong with my disc or if it's the console but I can't get into the warehouse to kill the beetles or break crap up.
Dregg
It will work at $5 per episode. Anything more, and probably not.
dirt410
It will be interesting to see how they 'end' each episode, whether in terms of story or playability. My money's on story. I'm glad to see someone [Lionhead Studios] already adjusting to the new Games on Demand feature. When I first heard about it, I was worried that RPG's would lose downloads due to the lack of any sort of playable demo. I hope that other developers at least take that away from this, but now I do wonder if people would just download the first 'chapter' just to get the achievements. Either way it's a bold first step into an expanding world.
realJWade
Ah, got me all excited. I thought maybe they were doing this for PC, too, when I first saw the title.
Nightshade386
Nah, I already own it. But I do think that if the wave of the future is digital distribution, that episodic content like this is a very good idea. Fable has some pretty clear breaks already defined in the game, so this should work out great.
Warheart1188
It'll be cheaper to buy the game on disc. You can get it for $40 now. I bet each episode will be like 1200-1600 points a piece. I hate downloadable games. It's just a ploy for people like me to go out and buy the bigger hard drives. I'll stick with having a hard copy of the game. It's a silly idea. I mean, where is each episode going to end? How the hell do you break down a RPG into 5 episodes and not expect people to get pissed when they get the end of one episode? I don't see this working out. Is each episode going to take up a lot of space? Or are you going to download the full game and have each episode unlocked?
Displaying 1–10 of 10