Playtesters apparently think Peter Molyneux’s new game has a lot in common with his old one: Fable.
Peter Molyneux’s upcoming Masters of Albion mixes all of his greatest hits into one god game stew, from Dungeon Keeper to Black & White’s ability to reach out into the world with a giant, physical hand to either place buildings or literally make sandwiches or shake villagers about until their brains scramble. Then you can zoom right into the world with a possession ability that lets you see the world through the eyes of a hero or even a chicken.
But Molyneux entered into a bit of a legal grey area when he said Masters of Albion both is and isn’t set in the same Albion as Fable – a fairytale series he originally directed, of course, but is still owned by Xbox – since he didn’t “really know” what the rights situation looked like.
Molyneux has now invoked Fable’s name again in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. The famed, sometimes infamous director said his new game takes inspiration from his classic RPG series as “the entire narrative, the entire world, the openness of the world, the freedom which Fable gave you as a play, absolutely is embraced.”
Going one step further, while speaking about recent Masters of Albion playtests, Molyneux revealed that the “first thing that came back is ‘oh my god, I’m playing Fable.'” Perhaps realizing he shared too much, he even added that he probably “shouldn’t say any of this stuff.”
For what it’s worth, at least one copyright lawyer said that Albion, the blanket historical setting, can’t be trademarked. Essentially, Masters of Albion won’t run into legal issues as long as it doesn’t use material that’s obviously Fable-y (the Hero’s Guild, certain character names, etc) because Albion is simply another word for ancient England, also used in games like Albion Online, most notably, and you obviously can’t trademark real world locations.
That should all explain why Molyneux was so quick to backtrack on the Fable comparisons later in the interview: “That’s what they said when they first started playing it,” he continued. “And then they said, ‘no no, it doesn’t remind me of Fable, it reminds me of Black & White.’ It is a blend.”
You can check out Masters of Albion’s Steam page and decide for yourself how similar it is.
